Two killed in Super Hornet crash
The Virginian-Pilot reports that two Navy aviators were killed in a crash near the Florida Keys;
Two Navy aviators from the Naval Air Station Oceana-based Strike Fighter Squadron 213 died Wednesday after their F/A-18 Super Hornet crashed off the coast of Florida, Naval Air Force Atlantic spokesman Cmdr. Dave Hecht said.
The fighter jet crashed about a mile off the coast around 4:30 p.m. as it was returning from a training mission, Hecht said. Both crew members ejected and were recovered from the water and taken by ambulance to Lower Keys Medical Center. Hecht did not know if the crew members, a pilot and a weapons systems officer, died at the scene or later.
The Navy made the recovery before civilian first responders could get on the scene, according to NBC News;
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office told NBC Miami that it dispatched units but that the Navy said it had the situation under control and didn’t need assistance.
Witnesses to the crash told the Florida Keys News that they saw what looked like an explosion.
“I saw the fire and then it just dropped,” said Barbie Wilson, who described the jet bursting into flames. “In the air, I saw fire.”
Category: Navy
Rest in Peace gentlemen, you’ve earned it.
May God Bless you both and your families during this tragic time.
Just heard about this on the radio.
Damnitsomuch.
Guys, RIP and prayers for their families and brothers and sisters in arms.
Some news reports are saying that the aircraft was executing a single engine approach when the remaining engine that was operating failed at low altitude while on final approach for landing.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/navy-fa-18-jet-crash-off-key-west-leaves-2-aviators-dead/ar-BBKdTxB?ffid=gz
‘The aviators — one pilot and one weapons systems officer — ejected from the twin-engine jet, which crashed around 4:30 p.m. on final approach to Boca Chica Field at Naval Air Station Key West, the Navy said in a statement. A source told Fox News that the jet was flying back on one engine when it lost the other at low altitude.’
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2018/03/14/super-hornet-crashes-near-key-west/
‘The “Fighting Black Lions” of VFA-213 are assigned to Carrier Air Wing Eight, which is currently assigned to the carrier George H.W. Bush.’
I wonder if one engine FOD’d out, and compromised the other one on approach.
Fair Winds and Following Seas to both…
I’ve been in a squadron that has lost an airplane, and pilot. It sucks, especially as a maintainer, because you begin to question any work you may have completed on that plane…what if I was responsible? My condolences to All Hands at VFA-213.
This is too sad for words. Too young, and now they are gone.
Fair winds and following seas to both of them.
Very sad, dammit. Condolences…
Lord, guard and guide the men who fly
Through the great spaces in the sky.
Be with them always in the air,
In darkening storms or sunlight fair;
Oh, hear us when we lift our prayer,
For those in peril in the air!
Prayers for their families and brothers and sisters in arms.
A Pair of Warriors taken from us far too soon, RIP.
Rest in Peace.
God rest them well and be with their families.
RIP Warriors.
RIP Aermen
Every day is a dangerous day in the service to your country. Peace be with you Gentlemen.
GMA said the plane rolled on approach the unfortunately that’s when they ejected. Hopefully untrue.
Rest in peace, men. Gone far too soon.
“Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds –
and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of –
wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.
Hovering there I’ve chased the shouting wind along
and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.
“Up, up the long delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
where never lark, or even eagle, flew;
and, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
the high untrespassed sanctity of space,
put out my hand and touched the face of God.”
More mishaps. A US Black Hawk helicopter was reported to have crashed in western Iraq.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/03/15/us-military-aircraft-crashes-in-iraq-officials-say.html
Gotta love Fox News.
According to the article, this is the second helicopter crash in two days.
Dumbasses.
Yes,because MSNBC/CNN are the paragon of journalism.
Prayers up for the fallen and their loved ones.
It’s been said many times before he on TAH, but bears repeating: Those that serve in peace and war both are at risk when defending our nation.
Rest easy Warriors.
“Both crew members ejected….” I am wholly ignorant of ejection procedure, safe altitude for ejection, and factors that could lead a successful ejection to result in tragedy. If any of you fixed-wing types could offer some info on this, I would appreciate it. As for the aviators’ loss, I join with those of you who offered prayers for their families and friends.
2/17 Air Cav:
From the news reports that I’ve seen, it appears that the aircraft may have quickly rolled/pitched out of the safe ejection envelope, and if the aircraft was becoming inverted at low altitude during the ejection sequence, the aircrew may have ejected downward directly into the water before their parachutes could deploy.
An eyewitness account From Navy Times:
‘Eyewitness report: Navy F/A-18F exploded before fatal crash’
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2018/03/15/eyewitness-report-fa-18f-exploded-before-fatal-crash/
‘An eyewitness said that the Navy F/A-18F aircraft that crashed on approach to Naval Air Station Key West yesterday, killing two aviators, may have exploded in midair.
Navy officials said late Thursday that the aircraft was on final approach to the base from a routine training mission when the mishap occurred, but couldn’t go into further detail while undergoing the preliminary stages of the investigation.
One eyewitness, however, who lives along the aircraft’s approach path to the base, told Military.com yesterday that the crash “looked like something out of a movie.”
Barbie Wilson had stopped to watch the F/A-18 flying overhead when she saw what she called a “massive malfunction” in midair.
“The wings went vertical, and there was a fireball, and it just literally dropped out of the sky,” Wilson said in the report.
She didn’t see the aircrew eject, the report said, nor did she see the aircraft hitting the water, but she later observed it laying upside down in the shallows.
Initial Navy reports following the crash said that search and rescue teams had recovered both the pilot and the weapons officer after they ejected. But a later release from Naval Air Forces Atlantic confirmed the terrible outcome.
[…].’
If you have enough altitude to begin with, the seat will right itself and the rocket motor will carry it upward before deploying the chute. In this case it appears the seat could not compensate for the attitude and altitude. Very sad.
RIP warriors!
I have watched many of those Zoomies while down in the Keys…always a thrill, but every time you leave the earth at a height greater than your own you risk injury or death. So very tragic….REST IN PEACE BRAVE YOUNG MEN.