Recovery team to probe crash site of fighter plane

Jace Radke

Tuesday, March 18, 2003 | 9:39 a.m.

A recovery team was expected today to make its way to a remote desert area 65 miles northeast of Las Vegas, where an F-15C Eagle military jet from Nellis Air Force Base crashed Monday morning.

The team of about 25 Nellis soldiers spent the night along Union Pacific railroad tracks, about a three-hour hike from the downed fighter.

"Our job is to secure the crash site and recover what we can for the investigation," said Col. Tim Ceteras, who is heading up recovery efforts after two F-15Cs collided in midair during a training mission. Neither pilot was seriously injured.

"Our main job is to secure the site and make sure it's safe," Ceteras said.

The plane's twin engines, technological hardware and anything that can assist investigators in piecing together what happened will be salvaged if possible, Nellis officials said.

Capt. Mike Zamiska safely ejected from the fighter after colliding with another F-15C piloted by Maj. Steve Early at 8:52 a.m. Monday. Both pilots and their planes are assigned to the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis.

Zamiska was picked up by an HH-60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopter, and Early was able to land his fighter at Nellis despite damage to the plane's right wing and horizontal stabilizer.

Both pilots were checked out by doctors, with Early suffering no injuries and Zamiska suffering only minor bruises sustained during the ejection.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation, Nellis spokesman Maj. Vic Hines said.

"It would be premature to speculate on what happened," Hines said. "An accident investigation board will determine what caused the crash."

The pilots were involved in routine air-to-air combat training when the accident occurred, a base spokesman said. Both planes, which took off at 8:14 a.m., were armed only with flares and chaff, Ceteras said.

Zamiska's plane went down about 24 miles northwest of Moapa, and recovery of the $29.9 million fighter led Nellis crews to a wash surrounded by ridges about 100 feet high. The crash site is located three ridges away from the railroad tracks over rocky terrain.

Two Nellis security force soldiers and two Nevada Army Guard soldiers, all armed, were dropped off at the crash site by a helicopter to guard the remaining pieces of the fighter.

The combination of the crash and bad weather caused Nellis to cancel flying of fixed-wing aircraft, but flying resumed today.

There have been several crashes of military crafts of various types at or around Nellis in recent years, including a September 1998 collision of two military helicopters on maneuvers at Indian Springs, which killed 12 airmen.

The most recent accident was in December, when a pilot with the 81st Fighter Squadron based in Spangdahelm, Germany, was killed when two A-10 Thunderbolt IIs collided northwest of Las Vegas.

The F-15 Eagle is an all-weather tactical fighter that accounted for 34 of the 37 air-to-air victories during the Persian Gulf War. Eagles are currently deployed to the no-fly zone in southern Iraq.