Pilot: Gulf Navy crash that killed seven may remain mystery

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Posted 1:47PM on Thursday, May 16, 2002

PENSACOLA, Fla. - The loss of two Navy training jets and seven crew members last week in the Gulf of Mexico may never be explained, a fellow aviator said Wednesday at a pair of memorial services. The T-39 Sabreliners, used for navigation, radar intercept, electronic warfare and other non-pilot training, vanished from radar about 40 miles south of Pensacola a week earlier on May 8. Neither sent a distress signal. "I do not know now, nor do I ever expect to answer or understand why this happened," said retired Navy Capt. Charles Tinker in his eulogy. "I fear it will remain a tragic mystery." Tinker is chief pilot for Raytheon Aerospace LLC, which has a contract to fly the T-39s, a military version of a popular business jet. Harry White, spokesman for Pensacola Naval Air Station, where the planes were based, said he still could not confirm whether they collided. Navy investigators have not decided yet whether to find and bring up wreckage from the gulf bottom 210 feet deep, White said. No remains have been recovered. About 800 people filled the base chapel to memorialize the two Raytheon pilots, both Vietnam veterans. They were retired Marine Corps. Lt. Col. Homer "Gray" Hutchinson III, 57, of Pensacola, and retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Marshall F. "Fritz" Herr Sr., 59, of nearby Pace. The service then moved to Barrancas National Cemetery, also on base, where a pair of white and orange T-39s flew over in formation before one broke away left and the other right. An honor guard fired three rifle volleys and played Taps. The flyover and honors were repeated later at a second memorial for all seven crew members. About 1,800 mourners, including Florida Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan, attended at the National Museum of Naval Aviation, also part of the base. Other victims included two instructors, Navy Lt. Cmdr. William R. Muscha, 36, of Fargo, N.D., and Royal Saudi Air Force Maj. Ambarak S. Al-Ghamdi, 32, a native of Albaha, Saudi Arabia, who between them left behind 11 children. The remaining crew members were students: Navy Lt. Christopher T. Starkweather, 26, of Fort Atkinson, Wis.; Navy Ensign James T. Logan, 26, of Woodland Hills, Calif., and Marine 2nd Lt. John N. Wilt, 23, of O'Fallon, Ill. It was the deadliest Navy training accident in the gulf in years. The last accident that was almost as deadly occurred on Oct. 29, 1989, a T-2 Buckeye trainer slammed into the control tower of the aircraft carrier USS Lexington. The student pilot and four people aboard the ship were killed. Friends and family delivered eulogies at both services Wednesday. Logan's twin, Marine 2nd Lt. Joe Logan, recalled how his brother longed to fly ever since they watched air shows together as children although both studied business at the University of Southern California. He recalled his brother saying he'd rather be an aviator than a doctor or lawyer because "at the end of the day they're the ones who are going to have to look up when the jets come." Hutchinson was born in Jacksonville, the son of retired Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Homer Gray Hutchinson II, of Tallahassee, who was at the service in the chapel where he had married his late wife, Mary Emily, 60 years ago. The younger Hutchinson also is survived by his wife, Suzanne, two children, Brent, of Tallahassee, and Shannon Hutchinson, of Laguna Beach, Calif., and a stepson, Jesse Glick, of Los Angeles. He had degrees from Tulane University and Boston University. Herr was a native of Joliet, Ill., and graduated from Eastern Illinois University. His Navy career included a stint as a Top Gun instructor pilot. He is survived by his wife, Melanie, and two children, Chip, of Pensacola, and Navy Lt. Kristen Herr-Garrett, a helicopter pilot, of Ponte Vedra Beach. Muscha, a Naval Academy graduate, is survived by his wife, Tamara, and six children: Emily, Andrew, Zachary, Molly Anne, Riley and Kara. Al-Ghamdi graduated from the King Fasal Air Academy and is survived by his wife, Monerah, and five children: Amani, Thani, Saja, Naji and Naif. Starkweather, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, is survived by his wife, Stephanie, and children Joseph and Jessica. Logan and Wilt were single.