1986: 3 die in Navy jet crash in VB

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - Below is an archived article written by Jean McNair for the Associated Press on May 23, 1986.

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AP News Archive
May 23, 1986

A motorist who saw a Navy bomber plow into a car says she watched helplessly as the driver died in the crash, which also took the lives of the jet's two crewmen.

''All we saw was the lady. She was reaching out for help, but the plane was on the car and it was burning. It just scared me. It really scared me,'' said Patricia Carter, who was driving three vehicles behind the one that was struck Thursday.

The Navy and witnesses said the A-6E Intruder had just taken off from Oceana Naval Air Station when it crashed in a field and skidded across a Oceana Boulevard.

''We saw flames and a lot of smoke and I heard a big bang,'' said Debbie Chiavaroli, who was in a nearby car. The plane was flying low over the trees with flames showing at its rear just before the crash, she said.

''I looked in my rearview mirror, and all I saw was fire and black smoke everywhere,'' said Marjorie Craighead, who was driving north on the boulevard with her 3-year-old daughter immediately in front of the station wagon that was hit. ''Somebody out there is with me. That car behind me was gone. It just blew up.''

The Navy identified the crewmen as Lt. James P. Hoban, 26, of River Vale, N.J., the pilot; and Lt. Michael F. Wilson, 27, of Medford Lakes, N.J., the bombardier-navigator.

The woman who died was Tammy Fowler, 25, of Virginia Beach, authorities said. Her husband, David Fowler, is a sailor based in Norfolk.

The crewmen, who belonged to Attack Squadron 65, had just taken off from Oceana Naval Air Station to deliver the bomber to Puerto Rico so it could join the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy, said Cmdr. Jolene Keefer, a Navy spokeswoman.

''The aircraft impacted just to the west side of Oceana Boulevard,'' said Lt. Cam Martin, a Navy spokesman. ''The force of the crash carried the aircraft across the road and it was at that point that it struck the car, which was traveling north at the time.''

The plane carried no bombs, he said.

''There is evidence that the pilots attempted to eject. Two chutes were found in the vicinity of the crash site,'' he said.

The medium-attack bomber was the type used in the April 14 raid against Libya.