Saturday, March 26, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Jets grounded after another Nellis crash
By OMAR SOFRADZIJA
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Jets assigned to Nellis Air Force Base were to be grounded this weekend as officials investigated a fighter crash Friday morning, the second such crash at the airfield in a week.
The pilot in the latest crash, involving an F-15C Eagle in Nellis' 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron, safely ejected as his jet smashed into a remote area 45 miles northeast of Nellis during a training mission about 8:35 a.m.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known. It followed the crash of an F-16C Fighting Falcon from Nellis' 16th Weapons Squadron on March 18.
"Any time you lose two aircraft, any time you lose any aircraft, you're concerned," said Brig. Gen. Gregory J. Ihde, commander of the 57th Wing, made up of Nellis' 32 squadrons.
"I have total confidence in what we're doing here, but we need to take a second look," Ihde said. "We'll get everybody together here and talk it over and see if there's anything we're doing differently. We're doing everything by the book."
"We'll probably be back in the air on Monday," Ihde said.
The weekend grounding of Nellis' approximately 140 jets will not affect 120 planes hosted by the base for the annual Red Flag training exercise, Ihde said.
"We need to get the training," Ihde said.
The crashed F-15, which was not participating in Red Flag, is assigned to a unit that develops and tests tactics to be used in combat. The jet was carrying dummy missiles at the time of the crash.
"They were just doing basic training missions," Ihde said.
The pilot, who was not identified, is considered highly experienced by base officials. The pilot has about 1,800 hours of flying the F-15 under his belt. Almost 400 of those hours were in combat missions.
The pilot was picked up by a rescue helicopter about 45 minutes after the crash. He was taken to Michael O'Callaghan Federal Hospital for evaluation, but he did not appear to suffer any significant injuries.
"The pilot is fine," Ihde said. "He walked out of the helicopter on his own."
The jet in question had a clean performance record as of late. "The jet's been flying fine," Ihde said.
The crash site is a desolate spot west of Mormon Peak in Lincoln County, on land used by the Air Force but administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. "There's no town around there," Ihde said.
Lincoln County sheriff's deputies secured the crash site, which is accessible only by dirt roads, officials said.
The F-15 is a workhorse tactical fighter that first flew in 1972. The upgraded F-15C version entered service in 1979.
The single-seat, twin-engine fighters cost about $30 million each and can travel at nearly 1,900 mph. Nearly 400 F-15s are in operation with the Air Force worldwide, with 19 at Nellis. Another 126 are assigned to Air National Guard units.
A cause has not yet been found for the March 18 crash in which a pilot was trying to land following a malfunction in his jet shortly after takeoff. The pilot ejected safely.
No planes were grounded after that crash, but the nation's entire fleet of F/A-22 Raptors, including seven such jets at Nellis, were grounded for two weeks after another Nellis-based F/A-22 crashed during takeoff here Dec. 20.
That pilot also ejected safely. A glitch in software controlling the plane was blamed for that crash.
