Search expanded for 2 Navy training jets that crashed in Gulf of Mexico

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Posted 12:41PM on Thursday, May 9, 2002

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Wind and waves forced the Coast Guard to expand its search Thursday for seven crew members from two Navy jets that crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. No sign of crew members had been found amid four debris fields, said Harry White, a spokesman at Pensacola Naval Air Station, where the planes were based. The two twin-engine T-39 Sabreliners went down Wednesday during a training mission about 40 miles south of this Florida Panhandle city. Three people were on one plane, four on the other. White could not say whether the planes collided. "They suddenly disappeared from our radar," White said. "There was no distress call." The initial search concentrated on a 2-square-mile zone where searchers found pieces of aircraft skin, insulation and equipment. The area was expanded Thursday to 50 square miles as currents scattered the debris. The jets, a military version of a popular business jet, are used at Pensacola for training navigators and other non-pilot air crew officers for the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and foreign military services. The planes were assigned to Training Squadron 86, part of Training Air Wing 6. Training Squadron 86 recently amassed more than 330,000 mishap-free flight hours and was awarded several honors for its safety record, according to its Web site. The squadron trains flight officers in navigation, radar intercept operation, electronic warfare and airborne tactical data systems and provides flight support for ground control approach and air intercept training. Its foreign students include trainees from Italy, Singapore, Germany and Saudi Arabia. It was the second military crash in the area in as many weeks. On April 30, an Air Force F-15C Eagle fighter out of nearby Eglin Air Force Base with one man on board crashed into the gulf during a weapons testing flight. The pilot is missing and presumed dead. ---- On the Net: Training Air Wing 6: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/navy/trawing6.htm