Pilot Unhurt as F-16 Jet Bound for Miramar Crashes

An Air Force F-16 fighter jet bound for Miramar Naval Air Station crashed and burst into flames Saturday morning less than 20 yards from the main taxiway at the Palmdale Airport, sending civilian aerospace workers scrambling for cover.

The pilot ejected just before the aircraft hit the ground, witnesses said. He was uninjured, officials said.

Lt. Col. Scott C. Allen, commander of Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, refused to comment on the cause of the 9:50 a.m. crash. Air Force investigators are looking into it, he said.

The $35-million plane plunged straight down, striking with such force that it burrowed into the ground, leaving only a portion of the tail section visible from the terminal. The canopy from the plane landed a few hundred yards away.

Nearby, workers dismantling an SR-71 Blackbird, a spy plane which is being retired, ran for cover when they saw the plane coming down, witnesses said.

No one at the airport was injured.

“It was like the blink of an eye and it was over,” said one witness, who asked not to be identified. “Flames were shooting 200 feet into the air.”

Johnny Smart of Quartz Hill, a Rockwell flight electrician who was working in a hangar nearby, said he heard a couple of explosions and ran outside. He said he looked up and saw the canopy coming off, the pilot parachuting down and the plane in a vertical dive.

“We saw this big fireball,” Smart said.

Allen said the plane, which is based at Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, Ariz., was on a routine, cross-country training flight. He would not provide details of the route except to say that the plane’s destination was Miramar Naval Air Station.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Rob Sexton at Luke identified the pilot as Capt. Craig Fisher, a flight instructor at the base. He said Fisher was unhurt but was taken to Edwards Air Force Base Hospital for examination.

An America West flight arriving from Phoenix after the crash was held on the runway for an hour because of debris on the taxiway. An outgoing Las Vegas flight was delayed for 30 minutes.

Passengers were taken by bus from the terminal to board their flights Saturday while airport officials tested an alternate taxiway for safety, Palmdale Airport official James E. Bort said. Airport officials expected operations to be back to normal by today, he said.

Palmdale Airport is operated by the Los Angeles Department of Airports and is located on the Air Force facility known as Plant 42. Plant 42 is an assembly and test site for aircraft built by civilian companies for the military.

An F-16 also based at Luke crashed Sept. 20 near Gila Bend, Ariz. No one was injured, Sexton said.