Reporter-News Archives

Thursday, February 19, 1998

Air Force bomber flies miles after crew ejects, then crashes

By TED BRIDIS Associated Press Writer

MARION, Ky. (AP) - Postman Eddie Hendrix was making his daily neighborhood rounds when a huge fireball lit up the sky above his 300-acre farm.

It wasn't his heating tank exploding as he first thought. An unarmed B-1B bomber plummeted into his fields Wednesday, narrowly missing his home and barn and scattering his cattle in terror.

No one was hurt on the ground. All four crew members parachuted to safety.

"It scared me to death," said Mark Williams, who lives one-quarter mile from the crash and saw the blast from his pickup. "You could feel the truck shake. I looked up, and you could see a big mushroom cloud."

Air Force officials said they had not yet determined a cause. The co-pilot "said that something went haywire," said volunteer firefighter Randy Rushing, who found Capt. Jeffrey Sabella in a field.

The $200 million swing-wing bomber continued roughly 12 miles after its crew bailed out, passing along the edge of Marion, a farming community of 3,300 people, before crashing near the rural farming community of Mattoon.

"We're happy that it landed in a field," Air Force Capt. Steven Doub said at the scene. "I'm not sure you can say that's luck, or whether the air crew members did what they could."

The Air Force identified the crew as Lt. Col. Daniel Charchian, the instructor pilot; Sabella, the co-pilot; Capt. Kevin Schields, the instructor weapons officer; and 1st Lt. Bert Winslow, the weapons system officer.

The bomber was flying out of Dyess Air Force Base near Abilene, Texas. It was not being dispatched to the Persian Gulf and was not carrying munitions, Air Force officials said.

Wednesday's was the sixth crash of a B-1B since the bomber went into service, Boeing aircraft spokesman Mike Mathews said.

The bomber plowed a hole nearly 10 feet deep and 40 feet long into the muddy farmland, then exploded violently, scattering debris over a huge area. Fire blackened the wet grass, and almost nothing was recognizable from the aircraft.

Hendrix rushed home when he saw the fireball, but police kept him back while they checked for munitions on the bomber. So after 30 minutes, he went back to his postal rounds.

"The mail has got to go through," Hendrix said. "I'm not only responsible for myself, I'm responsible for everybody else who depends on me for their mail."