Military pilot did not eject, was killed in Virginia F-15 crash, say investigators

The pilot of an F-15 jet that crashed this week was killed, military officials said Thursday, bringing to a sad end an exhaustive two-day search.

|
Steven Senne/AP
A Massachusetts Air National Guard F-15C fighter aircraft sits near a hangar at Barnes Air National Guard Base, in Westfield, Mass., Wednesday, Aug. 27.

The pilot of an F-15 jet that crashed this week in remote Virginia mountains was killed, military officials said Thursday, bringing to a sad end an exhaustive two-day search involving more than 100 local, state and federal officials as well as volunteers.

Col. James Keefe announced the news at the Massachusetts Air National Guard in Westfield, Massachusetts, home of the 104th Fighter Wing with which the pilot and jet were based.

Keefe said his "thoughts and prayers are with the family" of the pilot, whose identity wasn't disclosed.

"Today was a tough day for the Massachusetts Air National Guard," Brig. Gen. Robert Brooks, Commander of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, told a news conference in Deerfield.

Asked how investigators knew the pilot had died, Brooks said rescuers found evidence at the crash site Thursday that the pilot did not eject. When asked for specifics, he said, "We just found evidence that the ejection seat was with the aircraft."

Brooks would not comment on whether the pilot's remains had been found, but only said, "We bring every airman home."

He said the investigation into what caused the crash of the single-seat jet is ongoing and would take several weeks. He said the pilot's family had been informed and his identity would be made public Friday.

The jet crashed in the mountains of western Virginia on Wednesday morning, shaking residents but causing no injuries on the ground. The impact left a deep crater and a large debris field in a heavily wooded area adjacent to a mountain in the George Washington National Forest.

Authorities said the pilot was headed to New Orleans for radar installation as part of routine maintenance and reported an inflight emergency before losing radio contact.

Keefe said there were no munitions onboard the jet at the time of the crash. He said the plane was flying at about 30,000 to 40,000 feet when the pilot reported the emergency.

F-15s are maneuverable tactical fighters that can reach speeds up to 1,875 mph, according to the Air Force website. The F-15C Eagle entered the Air Force inventory in 1979 and costs nearly $30 million, the website says. The Air Force has nearly 250 F-15s.

Several F-15s have crashed over the past few years in various states. In at least one, the pilot ejected safely. Causes included failure of a support structure for the jet and pilot error.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Felberbaum in Richmond, Va., Brock Vergakis in Norfolk, Va., and Stephen Singer in Westfield, Mass., contributed to this report.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Military pilot did not eject, was killed in Virginia F-15 crash, say investigators
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0828/Military-pilot-did-not-eject-was-killed-in-Virginia-F-15-crash-say-investigators
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe