A helicopter takes off near search team members who wait for their turn to join the search for a missing pilot at the mobile command center in Deerfield, Va., yesterday. The search is for the missing pilot of an F15c fighter jet which crashed into a mountain near Elliot Knob in Augusta County. (AP photo/The News Leader, Mike Tripp)
WESTFIELD – A Virginia State Police spokeswoman says rescuers have resumed searching for a pilot who went missing after a single-seat F-15C Eagle fighter jet assigned to the 104th Fighter Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard crashed in a remote, heavily wooded area of western Virginia.
She says the search had been suspended at midnight. More than 100 people and several helicopters searched throughout the day yesterday.
A team walks away from the helicopter they arrived in at the mobile command center in Deerfield, Va. yesterday. The helicopter is one of several being used in a search and rescue mission to locate the missing pilot of an F15c fighter jet which crashed into a mountain near Elliot Knob in Augusta County. (AP photo/The News Leader, Mike Tripp)
The search for the missing 104th Fighter Wing pilot expanded with additional Air Force resources as day broke over the Washington National Forest near Deerfield Valley, Virginia.
The F-15C Eagle crashed at approximately 9:05 a.m. yesterday. Radio contact with the pilot was lost about 5 minutes earlier.
Officials say the pilot reported an inflight emergency, then lost radio contact.
Several local residents reported hearing three loud booms. No injuries were reported on the ground. Officials haven’t yet said what caused the crash or whether the pilot ejected.
Since yesterday morning, a search and rescue operation has been on-going in Virginia. The search efforts now include a specially equipped HC-130 aircraft assigned to Moody Air Force Base. This aircraft has specialized equipment designed for low-light/night-time search and rescue operations. The HC-130 has been conducting air operation since 3 a.m. Additionally, as many as seven helicopters have been conducting aerial night searches.
Throughout yesterday, at least 100 state police, sheriff’s deputies and fire and rescue personnel had been on scene. The ground search slowed overnight due to the dangerous terrain around the crash site. Approximately 10 search-and-rescue teams were on the ground searching along logging roads, fire trails and forest roads. The terrain is too treacherous for off-road ground searches in the dark, according to Geller.
The search for the missing pilot and the investigation into the crash are ongoing.
A search helicopter lands close to the scene where an Air Force F-15C fighter jet based at Barnes crashed near Deerfield, Va. The jet was on a standard training exercise to receive a system upgrade and had no munition onboard, said Maj. Matthew Mutti. Officials said the pilot’s status was unknown. (AP Photo/The Staunton News Leader, Griffin Moores)
Yesterday, Col. James Keefe, Commander of the 104th Fighter Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard said at a news conference at Barnes that the missing pilot is an experienced flyer. He said the plane was on its way to New Orleans to have a radar installed as part of routine maintenance.
A search helicopter lands close to the scene where an Air Force F-15C fighter jet based at Barnes crashed near Deerfield, Va. The jet was on a standard training exercise to receive a system upgrade and had no munition onboard, said Maj. Matthew Mutti. Officials said the pilot’s status was unknown. (AP Photo/The Staunton News Leader, Griffin Moores)
There were no munitions on the aircraft during the cross-country trip to the New Orleans Naval Air Station where the aircraft was being modified with the newer radar system.
Keefe said the pilot was operating the air superiority aircraft at high elevation, around 40,000 feet, to conserve fuel when the pilot declared an inflight emergency and contact was lost.
Keefe said he had not received confirmation that anyone had reached the crash site, which he said was in mountainous terrain. The crash site is between 3,000 and 4,000 feet above sea level.
Augusta County Sheriff’s deputy Jeremy McManaway, center, talks with another emergency responder at a staging area close to the scene where an Air Force F-15C fighter jet based at Barnes crashed near Deerfield, Va. The jet was on a standard training exercise to receive a system upgrade and had no munition onboard, said Maj. Matthew Mutti, from Barnes Air National Guard Base. Officials said the pilot’s status was unknown. (AP Photo/The Staunton News Leader, Griffin Moores)
“There is an on-going rescue mission involving local police and fire personnel, federal agencies and the Virginia National Guard which is pushing forces into the crash area,” Keefe said. “The Virginia National Guard and Air National Guard are securing the accident scene and have dispatched helicopters to look for the pilot.”
Subsequently there were reports of dark smoke being seen around the aircraft’s last known whereabouts. Local law enforcement arrived on scene and confirmed the aircraft crashed.
Keefe said that the pilot of a small aircraft witnessed and reported the crash.
A Virginia State Police search helicopter hovers close to the scene where an Air Force F-15C fighter jet based at Barnes crashed near Deerfield, Va. The jet was on a standard training exercise to receive a system upgrade and had no munition onboard, said Maj. Matthew Mutti. Officials said the pilot’s status was unknown. (AP Photo/The Staunton News Leader, Griffin Moores)
“We don’t know the status of the pilot,” Keefe said. “The aircraft crashed in a heavily wooded area. An emergency command center has been established five to six miles away from the crash site because of the terrain.”
“Communication is difficult because it’s a very remote location,” Keefe said. “There are no cell towers and radio communication is difficult.”
“We are hopeful that the pilot is OK, and the pilot will be in our thoughts and prayers as the events of this incident unfold,” said Keefe. “Our first concern is the welfare of the pilot’s family. We have been in contact with the family.”
Police say they located the crash site in Deerfield, about 135 miles northwest of Richmond. The area around Deerfield is rural with rocky, steep terrain.
Residents near Deerfield — with a population of just 130 people, about 135 miles northwest of Richmond — say they heard a series of explosions-like booms.
The flight crew for a Maryland State Police helicopter prepares to take off from the mobile command center in Deerfield, Va. yesterday. The helicopter is one of several being used in a search and rescue mission to locate the missing pilot of an F15c fighter jet which crashed into a mountain near Elliot Knob in Augusta County. (AP photo/The News Leader, Mike Tripp)
Turkey farmer A.D. Shinaberry said that from the first two booms, he thought a plane had broken the sound barrier. But 10 seconds later he heard a third boom — the crash, he said.
Then, “it was like a mushroom, black smoke came up,” Shinaberry said.
From the smoke, Virginia State Police said, they located the crash site, in a heavily wooded but level area adjacent to a mountain in the George Washington National Forest.
A deep crater and a large debris field are on the site, and state police are searching, spokeswoman Corrine Geller said.
“It is probably five, six miles from the crash site to the nearest civilization,” Keefe said. “It’s deeply wooded, and a lot of hills and mountains.”
Corinne Geller, spokesperson for the Virginia State Police, speaks to reporters during a news conference at the mobile command center in Deerfield, Va. yesterday during a search and rescue mission to locate the missing pilot of an F15c fighter jet which crashed into a mountain near Elliott Knob in Augusta County. (AP Photo/The Staunton News Leader, Mike Tripp)
“It’s the loudest noise I’ve ever heard,” 63-year-old Rebecca Shinaberry, who lives on a farm about two miles away, told The Associated Press. “(It) just shook the ground and from my house we could just see a big plume of smoke.”
Keefe said the pilot “is very experienced. Guard pilots usually have more flight time than active components pilots.”
The pilots routinely train “every six months for ejections,” Keefe said. They are also trained to survive on the ground after ejecting from their aircraft.
Keefe said there has been no communication from the missing pilot, but added that pilots are also trained to drop their survival gear, which includes communication devices such as radios and satellite phones, as they approach the ground to prevent it from getting hung up in trees.
“This is a traumatic event for everyone here,” Keefe said.
F-15s are maneuverable tactical fighters that can reach speeds up to 1,875 mph, according to the Air Force website. The F-15C Eagle entered the Air Force inventory in 1979 and costs nearly $30 million, the website says. The Air Force has nearly 250 of them.
Keefe said the 104th flies the newest version of the F-15c introduced into the Air Force inventory in 1986.
The 104th Fighter Wing operates 18 F15-c models and two F-15 D models which are ground support fighter jets and which carry both a pilot and a weapons officer.
Several F-15s have crashed over the past few years in various states. In at least one, the pilot ejected safely. Causes included failure of a support structure for the jet and pilot error.
Alan Suderman of the Associated Press contributed to this report.
