Airplane Accidents

The Marine Corps has identified the two Super Cobra pilots who were killed when their helicopter crashed Tuesday night in a mountainous part of eastern San Diego County. The Marines were identified as Capt. Jessica Conkling, 27, of Centre, Pa., and 1st Lt. Aaron Cox, 26, of Pulaski, Ark. The two were on a night training mission when the attack helicopter crashed in the Cleveland National Forest. Conkling and Cox were assigned to fly with the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station-based Medium Helicopter Squadron 166. They were training for an upcoming deployment with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit 11 based at Camp Pendleton.

American Airlines failed to catch repeated errors by mechanics before a September 2007 flight that made an emergency landing after one of its engines caught fire during departure. The 143 people aboard the flight from St. Louis weren't hurt, but the incident could have been catastrophic because of additional mistakes by the flight crew, members of the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

A veteran test pilot was killed Wednesday when an F-22 Raptor, an Air Force fighter plane designed to provide "air dominance" with its missiles and cannons, crashed in the high desert outside Edwards Air Force Base. The pilot was identified as David Cooley, 49, a 21-year Air Force veteran who joined Lockheed Martin Corp., the plane's principal contractor, in 2003. Cooley, of Palmdale, was pronounced dead at Victor Valley Community Hospital in Victorville.

The woman who barely escaped with her daughter when a commuter plane plowed into their house, killing her husband and all 49 people aboard, returned to the disaster scene Wednesday. While she was there, investigators continued to collect evidence they hope will tell them what brought down the aircraft. Karen Wielinski, 57, and her daughter Jill, 22, were escorted by police to the site where her home once sat.

Residents of Clarence Center spent Sunday grappling with the randomness and destruction of the plane crash that jolted their quiet community, even as new details emerged indicating that Continental Connection Flight 3407 was flying on autopilot in icy conditions as it made its descent into Buffalo last week.

Descending through a snowy mist toward Buffalo Niagara International Airport, the crew of a Continental commuter flight noticed a significant ice buildup on the windshield and wings of the plane, despite having turned on the craft's de-icer.