Navy Plane Missing Off North Carolina

[ccheese]

Search continues for 3 aviators missing off carrier Truman

By LOUIS HANSEN, The Virginian-Pilot
August 16, 2007 | Last updated 12:44 PM Aug. 16

NORFOLK
The Navy and Coast Guard continue today to search for three crew members aboard a twin-engine Navy radar plane that crashed late Wednesday night while conducting routine operations from the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman.

The crew of the E-2C Hawkeye from Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 120 went into the Atlantic about 11 p.m. following its launch from the Truman, the Navy said. The Truman is training 150 miles southeast of the Virginia Capes.

The aviators, whose names have not been released, were conducting carrier qualifications when the plane crashed. An investigation is underway, and Maus did not know if weather or other conditions played a part in the crash.

An air and sea search is being conducted by units from the Truman, the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Coast Guard. The Truman is in the final stages of training for deployment.

The squadron, VAW-120 and known as the Greyhawks, is based at Norfolk Naval Station. It trains pilots and flight officers before they are assigned to operational fleet squadrons.

The E-2C Hawkeye is a twin-engine turbo prop plane used for command, control and early warning. It usually has a crew of five, including two pilots and three flight officers.

Hawkeyes carry a large circular radar dome over the wings and came to the Navy in 1964 as the "eyes of the fleet." The current version of the E-2C joined the fleet in 1973 and has flown over 1 million flight hours.

"It's probably one of the best-maintained airplanes we have," Maus said.
April Phillips, a spokeswoman for the Naval Safety Center, said the Hawkeye's record makes it one of the Navy's safest planes.

It has had 12 major mishaps involving injury or loss of the plane since 1980. The last major mishap occurred in March 1993, when five Norfolk-based officers from squadron VAW-124 were killed in a crash off Italy's eastern coast.

The plane was returning to the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt when it was waved off from a landing. The plane flew past the ship and disappeared about one mile from the carrier, according to news accounts.

In July 1992, smoke from an hydraulic fire filled the cockpit of a Hawkeye attempting an emergency landing aboard the carrier John F. Kennedy. The five man crew were killed when they crashed into the Caribbean Sea in the wake of their ship. [Unquote]


The news said three crewmen were missing, altho the Hawkeye normally
carries a crew of five.

Charles

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Wow!

I saw a Hawkeye crash at Point Mugu - I think it sucked a bird. The crew walked away

 

[SoD Stitch]

Wow!

I saw a Hawkeye crash at Point Mugu - I think it sucked a bird. The crew walked away

"Sucked a bird"? Did it go into the engine? Or just through the prop? Wouldn't it have to get past the prop to get into the turbine?

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Wow this sucks! I pray for there rescue.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

"Sucked a bird"? Did it go into the engine? Or just through the prop? Wouldn't it have to get past the prop to get into the turbine?

Into the engine and canned it and yes, it got through the prop (but we'll never know if in one piece).

I happen to be there with VP-65 doing part of my yearly AT. I saw the guy doing touch and goes (I was working on a P-3 engine facing the runway on a B4 stand) and the next thing I saw was a cloud of dust at the end of the north/ south runway (the E2 was heading south). I ran to the edge of the taxiway and by that time every ES person on the base was on scene. Here's the the blurb from the Navy Times for June 2000.

"On 9 May 2000, an E-2C Hawkeye of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 116, operating at its home base of NAS Point Mugu, Calif., was damaged when it struck the ground after a bird strike."

 

[ccheese]

In today's (Norfolk) Virginian Pilot, the Navy has declared the three missing
pilots dead. They were Lt. Cameron N Hall, 30, of Natchitoches, LA; Lt. Ryan
K. Betton, 31, of Collinsville, VA and Lt(jg) Jerry R. Smith, 26, of Greensville,
MA. Betton and Hall were instructors with Carrier Airborne Early Warning
Squadron 120, Smith was a student.

Charles

 

[FLYBOYJ]

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Yes unfortunatly they were declaired dead and missing. The Search was called off.

 

[mkloby]

 

[ToughOmbre]

These men that protect us and this country are engaged in a very dangerous business. It's much appreciated by those they protect and it is NEVER taken for granted.

 

[Gnomey]