Air Force will take months to determine cause of missile crash

Scott Sonner

Friday, Sept. 29, 2000 | 4:19 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - An Air Force safety investigation board will take months to determine why a test cruise missile fired in a training mission went off course and crashed in the Nevada desert, a spokesman said Friday.

"We treat this type of incident just like an aircraft accident," Sgt. Craig Heighton said from Eglin Air Force Base near Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

"We are convening a safety investigation board. The results probably won't be out for three to six months," he said.

The missile carried no explosives. Armed with a dummy warhead, it was launched about 7 a.m. Wednesday from a B-52 flying within a military testing range in Utah and crashed about 50 miles south of Wendover, Nev.

"They had a geographic target within the Utah testing range," Heighton said.

"It was about a half-hour into the flight. It didn't reach the target but it went down well within the training range," he said.

Heighton is a public affairs officer for the 53rd Wing based at Eglin Air Force Base, which tests operational weapons and electronic warfare equipment and is handling the investigation.

He said it is the first time an air-launched missile from the 53rd Wing had crashed. He said he had no immediate information on military-wide statistics.

"They will look through the telemetry data and make a determination of what the cause of the accident was," Heighton said.

"Unfortunately, this type of thing does happen on occasion. That's why we have procedures to determine why it happened and what kind of corrective action should be taken," he said.

Heighton said if something had occurred "to throw up some red flags immediately," Air Force brass might decide to ground a weapon until further testing.

"But that is not the case here," he said.

The missile was recovered and transported to Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The B-52 was based at Minot, N.D.

The area where the rocket crashed is near the Goshute Indian Reservation along the Nevada-Utah border about 350 miles east of Reno.

"There is nothing collateral around there and no danger to anyone," Heighton said.