Wednesday, March 17, 2004 | 11:20 a.m.
Five people were killed Tuesday morning when their Air Force plane crashed about 125 miles northwest of Las Vegas in the Nellis Air Force Range.
All five aboard the Beechcraft KA 1900, assigned to Air Force Materiel Command, were civilians, Nellis Air Force Base officials said. The four passengers were contractors, and the pilot was a civilian employee of the Air Force.
The plane was flying what officials called a routine support mission when it crashed for unknown reasons about 5 a.m. Tuesday. The plane had taken off from a remote location on the 2.9 million-acre Nellis Air Force Range, and was headed for the landing strip outside of Tonopah on the northern edge of the range.
Those killed were not immediately identified by Air Force officials, pending notification of next of kin. The contractors worked for Las Vegas-based JT3 LLC, while the Air Force employee was not assigned to Nellis.
Nellis officials said that the cause of the crash is unknown and that a safety investigation board had been sent to the crash site.
Beechcraft KA 1900s are twin-engine turbo-prop aircraft that can hold as many as 19 passengers.
Air Force Material Command is headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and is charged with developing and acquiring products and technology, including new weapons systems, for the Air Force. The command includes a work force of 90,000 military and civilian employees.
The company assists customers, and other contractors in the planning, preparation, and execution of test projects and training missions, according to JT3's website.
EG&G Technical Services, Inc. and Raytheon Technical Services Company formed JT3 in response to the Defense Department's merger of the engineering and technical support management of several western ranges, according to the website.
Tuesday's crash was the worst at the Nellis Air Force Range since the September 1998 helicopter collision that killed 12 Nellis airmen. Two HH-60G Pavehawk helicopters were practicing night maneuvers when they collided 25 miles north of Indian Springs.
The six crewmen on each helicopter were killed in the crash.
The last fatal crash involving aircraft taking off from Nellis or flying over the range occurred on Dec. 4, 2002, when two A-10 Thunderbolt IIs collided. Capt. Eric Palaro, a pilot assigned to the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, was killed in that crash.
More recently, an A-10 crashed about 40 miles northeast of Las Vegas on Nov. 18. Capt. John Dyer, a student at the U.S. Air Force Weapons School, was treated and released from the Mike O'Callaghan Federal Hospital in Las Vegas after he safely ejected from the jet.
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