
DATE: Wednesday, September 17, 1997         TAG: 9709170484

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:  142 lines

TWO MORE MILITARY JETS COLLIDE WARNER WANTS TO PROHIBIT STEALTH PLANES AT AIR SHOWS

Two Air Force fighter jets collided Tuesday night off the coast of New Jersey, raising the total of crashed U.S. military planes to six over the past three days. The unusual run of accidents interrupt what had been a banner year for safety in military aviation.

The crashes left 14 service members dead or missing and prompted Virginia Sen. John W. Warner to introduce legislation to bar the Air Force from flying or displaying its showpiece F-117 and B-2 ``stealth'' warplanes at public air shows. The planes, costing $100 million and $2 billion, respectively, are the priciest in the Pentagon's tactical inventory. The Air Force quotes the fighter's price at $45 million, but that does not include research and other costs.

Air Force leaders, however, argued that the stealth planes' public relations benefits outweigh the risks.

``I just do not believe that this type of asset can be put at this type of risk'' Warner told fellow senators.

Defense Secretary William S. Cohen disagreed, saying, ``I don't think we should ever rule out any aircraft participating in shows.''

An F-117A making low-level passes as part of an air show went down in a suburban Baltimore neighborhood Sunday afternoon. The pilot ejected safely seconds before impact, and miraculously, no one on the ground was seriously injured.

After the New Jersey crash Tuesday, which occurred about 60 miles southeast of Atlantic City over the Atlantic Ocean, one F-16 pilot managed to land safely. He kept an eye on the two pilots of the other F-16 until the Coast Guard rescued them, officials said.

One airman suffered a head gash and a bruised pelvis. Another suffered minor injuries. Both were taken to Atlantic City Medical Center.

Two Marines died in the Monday night crash of an F/A-18D in North Carolina; on Sunday a Navy pilot was killed when his F/A-18 went down in Oman; and nine Air Force fliers were lost after an apparent mid-air collision with a German plane east of Africa.

``One accident is one accident too many,'' said Kenneth Bacon, the Defense Department's top spokesman, promising that each of the recent crashes will be thoroughly investigated.

But Bacon stressed that the services believe that despite the recent surge in accidents, they will finish the federal fiscal year Sept. 30 with a major accident rate of only 1.5 per 100,000 hours flown, matching the all-time record set in 1996.

A Navy official said the sea service expects to finish the fiscal year with an accident rate of just over 1.3 per 100,000 hours, its lowest ever. F/A-18s, the workhorses of the service's air power, have been involved in just two major accidents, with just one flier killed, during the year, the official said.

Near Baltimore Tuesday, military and civilian authorities continued to search the site on Sunday's F-117A crash, looking for clues as to why parts of the plane apparently broke off as it roared over the air show. Because much about the radar-evading fighter remains classified, residents living in the crash area were still barred from their homes.

Warner said concerns about cost and the possibility that sensitive information about the F-117 and the B-2, the Air Force's other stealth plane, could fall into unfriendly hands also motivated his call for an end to their participation in public air shows.

But the Virginian said the Air Force should be able to continue using the planes in military shows, which he likened to training exercises. Most bases are expansive enough that an accident would likely occur in an area the military can easily secure, Warner suggested.

Cohen, speaking at a gathering celebrating the Air Force's 50th birthday, urged lawmakers to ``wait and see what the facts show'' before deciding whether to block use of the stealth planes in air shows.

Gen. Michael Ryan, President Clinton's nominee to be the Air Force chief of staff, also defended using the planes in shows.

At his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, Ryan said the military needs to show Americans what they are paying for. ``It ought to be visible to them. They ought to see that we have great capabilities within our armed forces,'' he told the Armed Services Committee.

He also said the participation of the more advanced aircraft, like the radar-evading F-117A that was a hero of the Persian Gulf War, also helps Air Force recruiting and deters would-be aggressors.

Among the recent military crashes, Sunday's loss of an Air Force C-141 in an apparent mid-air collision with a German military transport off the Namibian coast was the most serious and also the most puzzling to authorities.

The accident, in which 24 German troops also apparently perished, occurred in good weather. An Air Force general overseeing recovery operations Tuesday said the chance of two such planes colliding in that area under those conditions ``is very small,'' comparing it to the chance that BBs fired from two guns in a medium-sized room would collide.

U.S., South African, and German forces were working Tuesday to recover bodies and the ``black boxes'' that record flight data from each plane in an effort to learn the cause of the incident.

In North Carolina, meanwhile, Marine officials recovered the bodies of Capt. Stephen S. McDonald, 30, of Sugar Land, Texas, and Capt. Brian Smith, 28, of Nashville, Tenn., from the Pamlico Sound on Tuesday. Smith was the pilot and McDonald the weapons and sensor officer aboard the Marine F/A-18D Hornet that crashed Monday night in the sound.

The plane crashed at the Piney Island Bombing range about 8:35 p.m. Monday while on a bombing training mission, officials at nearby Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station said.

The bombing range sprawls over land and water about 26 miles northeast of Morehead City, and the water is relatively shallow. MEMO: Staff writer Jack Dorsey contributed to this story. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

``I just do not believe that this type of asset can be put at this

type of risk,'' Sen. John W. Warner told fellow senators.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Military officials are investigating the series of air crashes from

the past three days. In Baltimore, members of the 89th Civil

Engineer Squad survey the site of Sunday's F-117A stealth fighter

crash.

Graphics

ROUGH STRETCH FOR MILITARY AIR SAFETY

OFF THE NEW JERSEY COAST: Two F-16s collided Tuesday about 60

miles southeast of Atlantic City. One pilot managed to land safely,

and he kept an eye on the two pilots from the other plane until the