Navy: Negligence Led To Fatal Carrier Crash

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. - Human error and negligence aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise led to a Nov. 8 accident that killed four aviators from Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, the Skagit Valley Herald reported yesterday.

The four-member crew of the EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare jet was practicing a night landing on the carrier when the plane struck an S-3B Viking aircraft on the landing deck.

Navy investigators concluded that flight-deck and control-tower personnel aboard the carrier waited too long to wave off the Prowler, according to Navy documents obtained by the newspaper through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The paper carried a story on the investigation yesterday.

The investigators also said the crew of the EA-6B was not responsible for the accident, which occurred off the coast of Virginia. The EA-6B jet was assigned to Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 130, based at Whidbey.

Punitive letters were placed in the permanent service records of two officers from the landing deck and one from the Enterprise's control tower, said Lt. Cmdr. Bill Spann, a Navy spokesman in Norfolk, Va.

Spann said the landing-signal officers also were removed from further duty on aircraft-carrier landing decks.

Punitive letters placed in permanent service records usually block officers from advancing their Navy careers.

After the Prowler hit the Viking, the Viking was engulfed in flames as it spun to the right and coasted into another plane.

The four Prowler crew members ejected and landed in the water. The body of Lt. j.g. Brendan Duffy, 27, was recovered shortly after the crash. The bodies of Lt. j.g. Charles Woodard, 26, Lt. j.g. Meredith Loughran, 26, and the pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Kurt Barich, 35, were not recovered.

The two-person Viking crew ejected and both were injured. Several members of the Enterprise crew also sustained minor injuries.