THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 8, 1997 TAG: 9702080342
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 82 lines
The Air Force suspended National Guard and reserve flights in training areas along the East Coast on Friday, hours after four National Guard fighter jets passed close to a commuter plane near Ocean City, Md. The incident was the second near miss involving Guard F-16s and airliners in three days.
The civilian plane took no special action, and no one was hurt in Friday's incident. The closer encounter, off the New Jersey coast Wednesday, prompted the pilot of that airliner to take evasive action, putting his Nations Air 727 into a dive that threw two flight attendants and a passenger to the cabin floor.
The Wednesday incident is being investigated by both the Pentagon and the National Transportation Safety Board. The military planes involved were under the jurisdiction of Navy controllers in Virginia Beach at the time of the encounter.
A Nations Air official charged that the fighter pilots ``screwed up'' or ``were playing games'' during the encounter. But National Guard Col. Thomas E. Griffin said that the airliner was never in danger and that the F-16 pilots simply were trying to identify a plane that shouldn't have been in that sector.
In Washington, a government official familiar with the investigations said all three planes had clearance to be in the area. And a Navy spokesman, Capt. Mike John, said the controllers at the Navy Fleet Area Control Surveillance Facility in Oceana Naval Air Station warned the fighter pilots that a civilian plane was in the area.
The F-16 pilots acknowledged receiving the warning, John added.
A source who has reviewed transcripts of conversations between the fighter pilots and the Navy controllers said the F-16s were told at 1:38 p.m. that there was ``working traffic'' in the area. Five minutes later the F-16s reported that they had made radar contract with the 727, the transcripts indicate.
Despite rules requiring them to come no closer than 20 nautical miles to civilian traffic, at least one of the F-16s continued to close on the Nations Air jet, the official said, until a controller in Virginia Beach ordered them to a different course and altitude at 1:46 p.m. The F-16s responded that they had the 727 in sight and were breaking off, the source said.
It was unclear why the guard plane, after sighting the airliner on radar, continued to approach it, the official said.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Paul Schlamm said both incidents will be investigated by the agency. He said the board has requested radar, radio and flight data recordings and will visit the Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control centers in Leesburg, Va., and on Long Island, the National Guard facility in Atlantic City, N.J., and the Navy air traffic control facility in Virginia Beach.
``We will try to develop a picture of what happened, what caused the problem and, hopefully, we can make some recommendations to prevent it from happening in the future,'' Schlamm said.
The Nations Air charter flight carrying 77 passengers and seven crew members from San Juan, Puerto Rico, landed as scheduled in New York, where the pilot reported the incident.
The pilot radioed air controllers in New York saying his radar showed one of the F-16s came as close as 400 feet.
In Friday's incident, Maj. Mike Milord, a spokesman for the District of Columbia Air National Guard, said four District of Columbia Air Guard jets were returning to Andrews Air Force Base from air combat training off the coast when they passed an American Eagle Saab 330 turboprop flight en route from Raleigh to New York.
An FAA official said the pilot of the commercial plane reported that two jet fighters flew above his plane and two below.
MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Associated Press and
staff writer Dale Eisman. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Controllers at the Navy Fleet Area Control Surveillance Facility in
Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, above, warned two
fighter pilots that a civilian plane was in the area in Wednesday's
close call, said Navy spokesman Capt. Mike John. He also said that
the F-16 pilots acknowledged receiving the warning.
Graphic
Close Calls
KEYWORDS: U.S. NAVY U.S. AIR FORCE ACCIDENT PLANE
INVESTIGATION COMMERCIAL AIRPLANE