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Eglin Halts F-15 Training After Deadly Gulf Collision

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The Associated Press

Published: February 22, 2008

Updated: 02/21/2008 11:24 pm

PENSACOLA - Eglin Air Force Base halted training flights for its F-15 pilots Thursday and investigators searched for the cause of a midair crash that killed one pilot and downed two jets over the Gulf of Mexico a day earlier.

The pilot's family was notified of his death Wednesday evening, said Sgt. Bryan Franks. Neither that man's name nor the name of a pilot who survived the crash has been released.

Both pilots ejected from their single-seat F-15C Eagles after the collision and were located by rescuers Wednesday evening. The surviving pilot was out of the hospital in good condition Thursday.

The cause of the collision about 35 miles south of Tyndall Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle was not immediately known, officials said. An Air Force board is investigating.

Weather in the area was clear Wednesday. Heavy rain moved in Thursday.

The jets were doing a routine air-combat training exercise when they apparently collided, Col. Todd Harmer, commander of the 33rd Training Wing said. Both pilots had been with the 33rd Fighter Wing "for quite some time," Harmer said.

After the crash, a Coast Guard rescue jet found the pilot who survived and radioed the location to The Nina, a commercial snapper and grouper fishing boat, which picked him up.

Thomas Niquet, the boat's captain, said he found the man in the middle of an oil slick after the boat passed through crash debris.

"He was able to talk to us, but he was weak. He had his vest on and it was inflated, his parachute was right there by him. He had been there in the water for quite awhile, but he didn't have any injuries," Niquet said.

"He wanted some water and we covered him up with a blanket. He was worried a lot about the other pilot."

That pilot told rescuers he saw the other pilot eject but lost him in the clouds. He told them the approximate location for the second pilot, who was found by a Coast Guard helicopter.

The Air Force grounded all of its F-15s -- nearly 700 -- after the catastrophic failure of an F-15C during a routine training flight in November. The pilot safely ejected.

Most were back in service by January, but others were grounded indefinitely after defects were found.

The Air Force began using the F-15C in 1979. The planes, built by McDonnell Douglas Corp., can fly as high as 65,000 feet, and each costs about $30 million, according to the Air Force.

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