DATE: Saturday, October 4, 1997             TAG: 9710040342

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   92 lines

NAVY SUSPENDS SEARCH FOR MISSING F-14 PILOT

An effort to rescue the missing pilot of a Virginia Beach-based F-14 Tomcat fighter that crashed into the Atlantic Thursday ended Friday afternooon without success.

The Navy suspended an active search for the pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Logan A. Allen III, 33, of Virginia Beach, about 1:45 p.m. Friday. The plane's radar intercept officer, Cmdr. Craig A. Roll, 39, also of Virginia Beach, had been rescued, uninjured, by a Coast Guard helicopter from Elizabeth City following the ejection of both crew members Thursday afternoon.

Crews from three Norfolk-based ships - the amphibious ships Austin and Tortuga and destroyer Deyo - scanned moonlit, choppy waters 55 miles east of Oregon Inlet, N.C., through the night Thursday, recovering a lot of floating debris from the Oceana-based jet.

Coast Guard and Navy aircraft, including helicopters, an E-2C Hawkeye radar control plane, a long-range C-130 Hercules cargo plane and two Army Blackhawk helicopters that had been training from the Austin's deck, searched the 4- to 5-foot seas.

Fatigue was the only factor that forced the rescuers to quit about 2 a.m. Friday. Search units returned at first light Friday, and were unable to locate the pilot - though some of his survival gear had been recovered.

The F-14 crashed about 4 p.m. Thursday while on a training flight from Oceana Naval Air Station. Both crew members' parachutes opened after they ejected, the Navy said.

Both crewmen were assigned to Fighter Squadron 101, a training squadron for F-14s. Roll, who as the F-14's radio intercept officer occupied the back seat of the plane, is the squadron's executive officer.

The captain of one of the rescue ships said the loss of the pilot rallied every crew member to spend exhaustive hours trying to find him.

``When something like this happens, it is totally unplanned and people just react,'' said Cmdr. Bill Valentine, commanding officer of the Austin, which was not far from the crash scene.

``We had every guy on board doing the unexpected,'' Valentine said by satellite telephone Friday. ``Lights came out on deck. People stayed up all night. We ran our small boats for 24 hours straight, changing crews every three hours.''

Ship's cooks kept the chow line open all night, furnishing hot food to the rotating ship and helicopter crews and those searching from the deck.

``People were doing exactly what they were trained to do because they understand a tragedy at sea. They really wanted to find this guy,'' Valentine said.

Perhaps most unique to the operation was the use of two Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters. While similar to the HH-60 Jayhawk and SH-60 Seahawk used respectively by the Coast Guard and Navy, the Blackhawks have been flown only in recent years from the decks of Navy ships.

The Blackhawks had been conducting deck qualifications from the Austin Tuesday and Wednesday, performing more than 200 landings, Valentine said. On Thursday they were returning to the ship for a third day. They are assigned to the Army's 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade at Fort Bragg.

``Just about the time we got the first one on deck, we got the notification that this tragedy had occurred off Oregon Inlet,'' Valentine said.

``We called Army headquarters and said we were on our way down and we'd like to take the Blackhawk with us. He was fully qualified in terms of flying off our deck. The Army immediately said, `Roger,' and sent a second Blackhawk, one we had worked with all week.'' Five additional pilots also came out.

Reaching the crash scene about 6:30 p.m., the two helicopters divided a 28-square-mile grid and began a search pattern that lasted 6 1/2 hours, said Valentine. The helicopters flew at staggered times for about 90 minutes before having to refuel and change crews.

Pilots flew low to the water, using night vision goggles in their search.

``It's a pretty tough skill to master,'' said Valentine. ``They were extremely successful in finding a lot of wreckage.''

The chopper crews would mark debris with floating smoke flares, or shine spotlights so the small boat crews could pick up the debris, Valentine said. The Austin recovered about 40 significant pieces of debris, including part of the twin tail fins from the aircraft. Some survival gear also was recovered.

The Tortuga and Deyo, which did not have helicopters aboard, used their small boats to recover the debris.

``We would not have recovered anywhere near the amount of wreckage, or had any prayer of finding this pilot, without their help,'' Valentine said of the Army aviators.

``We talk about jointness all the time and this really was a . . . practical application of jointness at the tactical level,'' he said. ``Usually we talk about it at the operational level, which is the headquarters level. This was no kidding, sailors and soldiers doing tactics and understanding how each other operates.

``And we come to find out we really can communicate. We really can work together. And the differences, with a little deck plate ingenuity, can really be overcome without much problem.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color STAFF/File photo

The F-14 crashed about 4 p.m. Thursday while on a training flight

from Oceana. KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT PLANE FATALITY U.S. NAVY F-14

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