US Navy aircraft crashes into sea

[Lex]

Deze kisten zijn in 1973 in dienst getreden, en zijn voorbestemd om in 2011 vervangen te worden.
Normaliter bestaat de crew uit vijf personen; in dit geval schijnen dat er vier te zijn.

[Lex]

1 still missing in Arabian Sea Hawkeye crash

One crew member remains missing nearly seven hours after an E-2C Hawkeye crashed into the North Arabian Sea, a Navy official said.
A mechanical failure forced the crew of four to bail out of the plane; a search-and-rescue team rescued three crew members within 30 minutes of the crash, according to a statement from the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain.
The Navy withheld the names of the crew members pending notification of their families.
The Hawkeye, from Norfolk, Va.-based Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 121, was returning to the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower following a mission supporting operations in Afghanistan.
The crash occurred at about 2 p.m. local time Wednesday, which is 5 a.m. on the East Coast. The crash site was about five miles from the Eisenhower.
Crew members contacted the ship about a mechanical problem and told the tower they planned to do a "controlled bailout" from the plane, said Lt. Matthew Allen, a spokesman for 5th Fleet.
The carrier air wing dispatched a search and rescue teams immediately, and several other rescue aircraft from nearby ships began assisting in the search shortly afterward Navy officials said.
It was at least the third major mishap involving an E-2C Hawkeye in recent years.
In August 2007, Lts. Ryan Betton, Cameron Hall and Jerry Smith were killed when their Hawkeye crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off North Carolina. An investigation was unable to determine the cause of the crash, according to a copy of the Judge Advocate General final report — known as a JAGMAN —- obtained by Navy Times. The plane catapulted off the deck of the carrier Harry S. Truman and crashed into the water moments later. The carrier never received any emergency radio transmissions or acknowledgement by the mishap crew, according to the report.
In March 2009, an E-2 Hawkeye veered off a runway in Norfolk and broke its landing gear. An investigation found pilot error and brakes that did not slow down the aircraft quickly enough were the cause.

Defense News,
Posted : Wednesday Mar 31, 2010 14:36:18 EDT

[Elzenga]

US Navy aircraft crashes into sea

A US Navy plane with four crew members on board has crashed into the Arabian Sea, the US Fifth Fleet said.

It said in a statement that the E-2C Hawkeye aircraft experienced mechanical malfunctions, forcing the crew to perform a controlled bail-out.

Three of the four crew were later recovered and a search is now under way for the fourth crew member.

An investigation has been launched into the incident. The crew was stationed on the USS Dwight D Eisenhower.

The aircraft had crashed into the sea at about 1400 local time (1000 GMT) on Wednesday, the statement said.

It said the plane "was returning from conducting operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom" in Afghanistan when the problems had occurred.

The identities of the crew are being withheld pending notification of next-of-kin.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/8597222.stm

Published: 2010/03/31 14:08:54 GMT

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