Unarmed B1-B Bomber Crashes In Field -- After Crew Bailed Out, Jet Flew 12 More Miles Missing Towns, Barn

MARION, Ky. - Postman Eddie Hendrix was making his daily rounds when a huge fireball lit up the sky above his 300-acre farm.

It wasn't his heating tank exploding, as he first thought. An unarmed B-1B bomber plummeted into his fields yesterday, narrowly missing his home and barn.

No one on the ground was hurt. All four crew members parachuted to safety.

"It scared me to death," said Mark Williams, who lives a quarter-mile from the crash and saw the blast from his pickup. "You could feel the truck shake. I looked up, and you could see a big mushroom cloud."

Air Force officials said they had not yet determined a cause. The co-pilot "said that something went haywire," said volunteer firefighter Randy Rushing, who found Capt. Jeffrey Sabella in a field.

The $200 million bomber continued to fly for about 12 miles after its crew bailed out, passing along Marion, a community of 3,300 people, before crashing near the farming community of Mattoon.

"We're happy that it landed in a field," Air Force Capt. Steven Doub said at the scene.

The crew was identified as Lt. Col. Daniel Charchian, the instructor pilot; Capt. Jeffrey Sabella, co-pilot; Capt. Kevin Schields, instructor weapons officer; and 1st Lt. Bert Winslow, weapons-system officer.

The bomber was flying out of Dyess Air Force Base near Abilene,

Texas.