Reporter-News Archives

Thursday, February 19, 1998

B-1 was on routine training mission

By BETH HALLMARK / Abilene Reporter-News

A Dyess Air Force Base B-1B bomber cut a fiery swath into a Kentucky farm Wednesday, minutes after its four-man crew ejected to safety.

The plane, which had left Dyess earlier in the day, was on a routine round-trip training mission, said Col. Dan Hoile, vice-commander of Dyess' 7th Bomb Wing.

On board were instructor pilot Lt. Col. Daniel Charchrian, co-pilot Capt. Jeff Sabella, weapons systems officer and instructor Capt. Kevin Schields, and weapons systems officer 1st Lt. Bert Winslow, all of Dyess' 9th Bomb Squadron.

Dyess officials said Charchrian and Schields were in good condition at a military hospital in Fort Campbell, Ky. Sabella and Winslow were in good condition at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., where they were taken for observation, officials said.

The crash occurred about 1:45 p.m. near Mattoon, a community of about 3,300, located five miles northeast of Marion, Ky.

Missing a farmhouse by about 700 feet, the plane crashed into an open field and exploded after flying unmanned for about 12-14 miles. No munitions were on board and no one on the ground was injured.

Two crew members, walking along the road, were picked up by a passerby in a car, while another was found walking in a field nearby. A fourth crew member suffered head and neck injuries after his parachute got caught in a tree, witnesses said.

Dyess officials did not give details of who was found where.

Randy Rushing, a volunteer firefighter who responded to the crash call, said he picked up the co-pilot in the field.

"He mainly said that something went haywire," Rushing said.

Rushing said Sabella told him the crew was aborting the mission to fly back to their base when there was smoke and they lost control.

One of the crew members told a rescuer "it went into chaos and we all bailed out," said Chris Evans, editor of the Crittendon Press.

"It had some sort of problem, but we don't know what that problem is yet," Hoile said.

The plane, called "The Hellion," left Dyess about 9 a.m. Wednesday for a routine "round robin" training mission, the vice-commander said. The mission includes low-level training, range work and air refueling maneuvers. The B-1B, which flew alone on the exercise, was expected back at the base about 4:45 p.m.

By 1:50 p.m., Dyess officials were notified that the plane had gone down. For a tense hour, they waited anxiously for word on the crew's condition, base officials said.

"After hearing confirmation that we had four survivors, a cheer went up in the command post," reported Maj. John Boyle, chief of Dyess' public relations office.

Base Commander Gen. Mike McMahan was in Virginia when he was notified of the accident.

"I was the happiest man in the world when I knew that they were all right," McMahan said upon his return to Dyess late Wednesday night.

The crew members survived by using their ejector seats to catapult them from the doomed plane. Propelled by rockets, the ejectors push crew members Ñ still strapped in Ñ through the roof of the plane after openings are created by a metal spike at the top of the seats. A parachute canopy then immediately opens.

"You pull the handles, and out you go," said Col. Tony Przybyslawski, who commands Dyess' 7th Operations Group. "You're out of there fast. I talked to Charchrian on the phone and he said he's pretty sore."

Przybyslawski, who also spoke to Schields on the phone, said the crew members were "happy to be alive."

They are expected to return home in the next few days.

But now will begin the lengthy process of determining the cause of the accident. The Air Combat Command will appoint a 12-member board to investigate, Hoile said. The probe will likely take about 30 to 45 days.

"The nice thing is we have the crew members to talk to," he said. "We'll get a lot of information from them."

McMahan said, "This is a very rigorous process ... We come up with a safety report that helps us be safer in the future. I'm very confident that we will be able to get to the root cause and make the aircraft safer."

In the meantime, Hoile said there has been no word on grounding the rest of Air Force's B-1B fleet because of the incident.

"The aircraft is very reliable. I fly it and I'm very confident of it," he said, adding that its role in the current Iraqi stand-off should remain the same.

"The B-1B can do its job, it has very good capabilities," he said.

McMahan said, "There will be no change in our operational status or capability as a result of this accident."

Two B-1Bs from Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota were recently sent to the Persian Gulf. The now-conventionally armed bomber never before has been deployed in a combat situation.

Calling the crash a "tragic and unfortunate accident," U.S. Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-Abilene, said he did not think it would have any effect on "the long-term viability of the airplane."

Frank Puckett, chairman of the Abilene Chamber of Commerce's Military Affairs Committee, also voiced support for the aircraft.

"Plane crashes are going to occur," he said. "The people who fly them know that, and we do too.

"The B-1B has an excellent safety record and as unfortunate as any crash may be, it's something we have to live with. We're just glad everyone is safe."

Though several witnesses reported seeing the plane flying at low levels, Boyle said it's too early to tell what level of flight the B-1B was in at the time of the accident.

"We should not attribute this to strictly a low-level mission, because we don't know that," he said.

However, the issue may be raised by groups opposed to a preliminary Air Force proposal to establish a realistic bomber training range for B-1Bs and B-52s over parts of West Texas and New Mexico.

Dyess officials who recently visited with Snyder-area residents to discuss one of the proposed training routes met with both support and some opposition, including concerns of low-level military flights and possible crashes.

However, Hoile said he believes the B-1B's overall record will speak for itself.

"Unfortunately, occasionally we lose a plane," he said, "but if you go back and look at the B-1B's record, you'll see that it has a very good safety record. Our crews are well-trained and very proficient."