interesting reading

The Virginian-Pilot © March 30, 2004
Two more jets crashed Monday, including an F-14 Tomcat from Virginia Beach, bringing to four the number of Navy aircraft lost in the past six days. In each case, the pilots and crew ejected safely, suffering relatively minor injuries. No one on the ground was injured. Monday’s accidents involved a Georgia-based F/A-18 Hornet that crashed in Tennessee and an F-14 Tomcat based at Oceana Naval Air Station that went into the ocean off Long Beach,
Calif. Last Wednesday, a Beaufort, S.C.-based Hornet was lost off the South Carolina coast.
On Friday, an Oceana-based Hornet burst into flames just
before attempting to take off from Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina. The accidents have come without any explanation from officials, who said they are studying the incidents. Often following such a rash of mishaps the Navy will order a safety stand down. As of Monday evening, no such orders had been issued, but it is possible officials are considering it, said Mike Maus, a spokesman for the Atlantic Fleet Naval Air Force in Norfolk.
Monday’s accidents happened at about the same time – 2 p.m. Eastern time. Shortly after takeoff, the F-14 Tomcat, assigned to the San Diego-based carrier John C. Stennis, radioed that it had engine trouble. The jet, from fighter squadron 31, was directed to land at North Island Naval Air Station near San Diego, but it crashed into the water about two miles offshore. The pilot and radar intercept officer were rescued with minor injuries, Maus said. They were rescued by a Navy research vessel.
Meanwhile, an F/A-18 Hornet attached to a Naval Reserve squadron in Atlanta crashed in an unpopulated area 30 miles north of Chattanooga, Tenn. Its pilot ejected and was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital with a broken foot. A witness to the Monday crash in Tennessee, Brenda Dodson, said the
jet had been “swerving back and forth” as it flew with another jet and then crashed into some trees. Dodson said the pilot landed close to the burning wreckage and that another jet continued circling overhead. “We had a power surge, then we started hearing this booming sound,” she said. “We saw one
plane flying straight and the other plane was swerving back and forth.”
The Navy has lost five aircraft, valued in excess of $150 million, in March. Another F/A-18 crashed on March 10 at Lemoore Naval Air Station, Calif., when the jet overturned while attempting to take off. Also on March 10, four people died when a small Marine Corps transport jet crashed near San Diego while trying to land. That brings to eight the number of Class A Navy aviation accidents – those involving more than $1 million in damages, or a
loss of life – in fiscal year 2004, which began Oct. 1, 2003. This time a year ago, there had been 11 Class A Navy accidents. On Friday, an Oceana-based F/A-18 pilot ejected just before takeoff at Raleigh-Durham International. The pilot, Lt. j.g. Wesley Baumgartner of Yorktown, was released from the hospital Sunday, but remained in the area to help military
investigators, Navy spokeswoman Cmdr. Lydia Robertson said. The aircraft was scheduled to be loaded on a truck and taken back to Oceana for further inspection this week, Maus said. On Wednesday, a Hornet based at the Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort, S.C., crashed on a routine training mission. The pilot was rescued uninjured and taken to a hospital at Hunter Army Air
Field near Savannah, Ga., for observation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

bad luck or….