Airplane Accidents Air Force U S

A C-130 cargo plane performing a tank-dropping maneuver crashed and burned on a dirt runway Wednesday, killing five servicemen but stopping 100 yards short of bleachers filled with spectators. Four of six Air Force crewmen on the plane were killed, as well as an Army soldier on the ground, said Capt. Brian Irving of Pope Air Force Base, where the four-engine turboprop was based. The two survivors were being transferred to Brooke Army Medical Center at Ft. Sam Houston, Tex.

An Air Force F-15E fighter jet crashed in the Nevada desert northeast of Las Vegas on Monday, killing both fliers on board, officials here said. A helicopter from Nellis' 66th Air Rescue Squadron flew to the crash site, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, where officials confirmed that the crash killed the pilot and the electronic systems operator, Maj. Greg Kreis said. The fliers were assigned to the 57th Fighter Wing at Nellis.

A B-1B bomber carrying six crew members crashed Monday in the Colorado prairie after birds were sucked into the aircraft's engines and possibly triggered a fire. Three crew members parachuted to safety, authorities said, but three others were killed. It was the first crash of a production model of the $270-million B-1B. The survivors were reported in good condition with minor injuries at the U.S. Air Force Academy hospital in Colorado Springs. "The other three crew members . . .

The Lockheed YF-22 jet that crashed Saturday at Edwards Air Force base most likely suffered a malfunction in its flight control system, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill McPeak testified Wednesday at a congressional hearing. McPeak said he suspected that flaws in the system's software or logic may have caused the aircraft to pitch up and down violently just before slamming into the runway. But he cautioned that he was simply speculating.

The Pentagon has released the identities of the 13 U.S. Air Force members who were killed and the four injured in the C-5 cargo plane crash early Wednesday near Ramstein Air Base in West Germany. Killed were Maj. John M. Gordon, pilot; Maj. Richard W. Chase, pilot; Maj. Richard M. Price, pilot; Senior Master Sgt. Carpio Villarreal Jr., flight engineer; Master Sgt. Rosendo Herrera, flight engineer; Tech. Sgt. Daniel G. Perez, loadmaster; Tech. Sgt. Lonty A. Knutson, crew chief; Staff Sgt.

A freak collision with a large bird--probably a 15- to 20-pound pelican--brought down a $280-million B-1B bomber on a test flight over Colorado last September, the Air Force said Wednesday in its official investigation report on the accident. The bird slammed into the plane as the craft was traveling at 600 m.p.h. and the bomber's thin aluminum skin was ruptured just above the right engines, ripping a critical hydraulic line and starting a 3,000-degree fuel fire that doomed the giant jet.

An F-14 Tomcat fighter based at Miramar Naval Air Station plunged into the sea off Point Loma on Wednesday, but both crewmen ejected safely and were rescued, authorities said. It was the fourth crash of a Miramar-based F-14 since December, and the 102nd since the fighter was introduced into service in 1972. Just last week, a Miramar-based F-14 crashed near San Clemente Island. Both crewmen ejected safely. Navy spokesman Cmdr.

An Air Force cargo plane with eight people on board crashed and exploded in a swampy forest north of Hurlburt Field in the Florida Panhandle, officials said. The C-141 Starlifter plane left from Norton Air Force Base, which is 60 miles east of Los Angeles, refueled in Colorado Springs, Colo., and was on its final approach to land at Hurlburt, when air traffic controllers from adjacent Eglin Air Force Base suddenly lost radio and radar contact, officials said.

Crew members of a crippled B-1B bomber that made an emergency landing here said Thursday that they had considered bailing out but decided against it after officials from Rockwell International, the plane's builder, persuaded them that the aircraft could land safely.

An F-5 fighter crashed on takeoff Monday at this Florida Panhandle air base, killing the pilot, an Air Force spokesman said. The single-seat supersonic jet, assigned to Williams Air Force Base in Phoenix, had stopped at the Florida base while on a cross-country training mission. The cause of the crash was under investigation.

A C-130 military transport on a training mission crashed into Blewett Falls Lake, near Lilesville in south-central North Carolina, and all nine people aboard were killed, authorities said. Anson County Sheriff Tommy Allen quoted witnesses as saying the plane, of a type used to move troops and equipment, circled the lake for about 15 minutes before it rolled over and went into the water sideways.

The body of the pilot of an American U-2 spy plane lost at sea near the border separating North and South Korea was recovered Thursday by a South Korean navy vessel, the Pentagon announced. The pilot was identified as Air Force Capt. James M. McGregor, 33, of Flagstaff, Ariz. He was the only crew member aboard. McGregor was assigned to Detachment 2 of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, based at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., said Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams.

A military jet crashed and burst into flames Monday at Sheppard Air Force Base, killing two crew members, officials said. The Air Force T-38 was on a training mission when it crashed on a runway Monday morning, a spokesman said. The cause had not been determined.

A U.S. Air Force F-16 jet crashed in a Houston suburb when its engines failed Saturday, but the pilot ejected and parachuted to safety, officials said. The jet crashed in an empty field in League City. The Air Force blamed the crash on engine failure. It was not known what caused the problem.

Troops moving to crush a Kurdish rebellion shelled the outskirts of this northern provincial capital Saturday, as tens of thousands of frightened civilians fled. One Kurdish rebel leader said Iraqi government forces were concentrating just north of Mosul, about 50 miles south of Dahuk and the largest city in northern Iraq, and that there were preliminary reports Saturday morning of fighting in that area.

The pilot of an Air Force F-16 was trying to urinate in a cockpit device when the $20-million plane went out of control at 28,000 feet and crashed at Palmdale Regional Airport in December, an Air Force report said Friday. The report describes the events leading up to the Dec. 1 accident, but it does not assign blame for the crash.

The pilot of an Air Force F-16 was trying to urinate in a cockpit device when the $20-million plane went out of control at 28,000 feet and crashed at Palmdale Regional Airport in December, an Air Force report said Friday. The report describes the events leading up to the Dec. 1 accident, but it does not assign blame for the crash.

An Air Force pilot was killed and a Marine crewman was injured Friday in the crash of an Air Force photo reconnaissance jet that narrowly missed a house in a rural area of north-central Texas, officials said. Officials at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, where the RF-4C Phantom jet was based, said the pilot of the aircraft, 1st Lt. James M. Poppo Jr., was killed when his parachute apparently failed to open.

The Defense Department on Monday identified seven American servicemen who were killed in two separate air crashes Sunday during Gulf War missions. Three were Air Force officers killed when their B-52 crashed in the Indian Ocean near Diego Garcia when they were returning from a bombing mission. They were Capt. Jeffry Jon Olson, 27, of Grand Forks, N.D.; 1st Lt. Eric D. Hedeen, 27, of Malaga, Wash., and 1st. Lt. Jorge I. Arteaga of Trumbull, Conn. The three other crew members were rescued.

An Air Force F-16 fighter jet crashed and burst into flames Saturday morning less than 20 yards from the main taxiway at Palmdale Airport, sending civilian aerospace workers scrambling for cover. The pilot, Capt. Craig Fisher, ejected just before the aircraft hit the ground, witnesses said. Fisher, a flight instructor at Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, Ariz., was in good condition, according to Lt. Col. Scott C. Allen, commander of Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale.