Navy halts F-14s on carriers

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Navy has temporarily stopped flying F-14 Tomcat fighters off its aircraft carriers because of suspicions a problem with a wheel assembly contributed to a fatal crash of one of the jets in March.

When deployed, the Everett-based USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier reportedly carries about 20 F-14s.

Though the investigation into the crash is not complete, the Navy wants all of its 156 Tomcats inspected, because it appears the cause of the crash was corrosion to a part of the nose wheel assembly used to catapult the aircraft from carriers, officials said Wednesday.

On March 2, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Blaschum, 33, of Virginia Beach, Va., died after ejecting from his F-14. It crashed during a training exercise off the USS John F. Kennedy in the Mediterranean Sea as the carrier was making its way to the deploy in the war in Afghanistan.

Inspections of the 22 Tomcats on the Kennedy are already under way, said Navy spokesman Ensign David Luckett.

"We expect it to have minimal impact in the war against terrorism," Luckett said of the Monday order suspending carrier operations of the Tomcat.

"Other aircraft on board (the Kennedy) are working to assume the missions where possible until the F-14s are back up and flying," he said.

Shore flights are not as hard on the landing gear. Takeoff from a carrier means the nose assembly is hooked to a catapult, which hurls the plane from the deck, accelerating from 0 mph to 150 mph in two seconds.

The day after the crash, Blaschum’s radar intercept officer indicated that the nose wheel assembly disintegrated as their Tomcat was being shot from the Kennedy’s deck, The Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported Wednesday. Riding in the plane’s back seat, Lt. j.g. Rafe Wysham, 25, was able to eject safely.

Luckett said the Navy expected to have all the Tomcats, which are built by Grumman Aerospace Corporation, inspected in about two weeks.