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16-Oct-87 12:05 MST
Sb: APnv 10/15 2240 Stealth Missing
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) -- An Air Force plane that Pentagon sources said was a
top-secret Stealth fighter crashed in a rugged desert area, killing the pilot.
A Pentagon official in Washington who asked not to be named described the
missing plane as a Stealth fighter, similar to the plane that crashed in 1986 in
California.
The source refused to discuss the conditions under which the plane crashed
and it could not be learned immediately whether the plane was on a training
exercise or a flight test.
Nellis Air Force Major Victor Andrijauskas said the pilot was killed when the
plane crashed on the Nellis Air Force Gunnery range about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday.
The crash was about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas and 50 miles south of a
secret air base where the Air Force is known to test the Stealth fighter.
A dispatcher for the Bureau of Land Management said the BLM was notified of a
fire in the area Wednesday night, and called the Air Force, which operates the
sprawling range facility. The dispatcher, who refused to give her name, said Air
Force officials asked the BLM not to say where the fire was or how big it was.
Andrijauskas refused to say what kind of plane crashed, but said the pilot
was the only crew member aboard. He said emergency crews responded and secured
the area.
"We have personnel on the scene," said Andrijauskas.
The spokesman said the pilot was assigned to Nellis, but refused to say what
fighter wing he was attached to. Nellis is the largest fighter wing training
facility in the United States.
A plane believed to be a Stealth fighter crashed in July 1986 in the western
Sierra Nevada, touching off a 150-acre brushfire in Sequoia National Park. The
crash occurred about 12 miles northeast of Bakersfield, Calif. Air Force guards
carrying rifles and pistols barred people from that crash site.
The F-19 fighter known as the Stealth has been described as an experimental
aircraft using the latest electronic technology, materials and aerodynamic
design to foil radar and infared sensors.
The Air Force has said it will buy 750 of the proposed advanced tactical
fighters, which will be high-technology planes slated to become the mainstay of
the U.S. air defense system through the mid-21st century.
Reports have long circulated that the Air Force tests a squadron of 50
Stealth fighter jets under Nellis auspices at the Tonopah air field about 200
miles northwest of the base.
Recently, a two-mile air strip was lengthened at the small base, and small,
individual hardened hangars were built along the base's flight line.
Residents in the Tonopah area said previously that the flight line remains
quiet during the day. But at night, the desert erupts with an almost constant
thunder of takeoffs and landings at the base.
The Tonopah base is on the northern tip of the Nellis range, which covers
about 3 million acres of desert and mountain areas, and borders on three sides
the Nevada Test Site, where nuclear weapons tests are conducted.
Copyright 1987 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.