ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 57209
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| Date: | Monday 24 July 1989 |
| Time: | 17:30 |
| Type: |  Grumman EA-6B Prowler |
| Owner/operator: | VAQ-129 US Navy |
| Registration: | 160790 |
| MSN: | P-77 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | NAS North Island, San Diego Bay, California -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Take off |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | NAS North Island, California (NZY/KNZY) |
| NAS Whidbey Island, Washington (NUW/KNUW) | |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
EA-6B Prowler BuNo. 160790/'NJ-916' of VAQ-129. Crashed July 24, 1989: On an out-and-in cross-country from NAS Whidbey Island to NAS North Island for lunch and then back. They were on take-off roll at North Island for the return trip when they lost control and ejected.
Two of the three crew - Lt John Ziebel [Pilot], Lt (JG) Kevin Leslie [student ECMO in ECMO-1 position (right-front seat)] ejected, but were killed. The third crew member - Lt Commander C. L. Mitchell ejected [CMO-3 seat (left rear)] ejected and survived. [later commanded VAQ-138 at NAS Whidbey Island, Washington]. According to a contemporary report in the LA Times (see link #1)
"The EA-6B Prowler was taking off from North Island Naval Air Station at 5:30 p.m. when it crashed and exploded just short of the ocean, killing two of the three crewmen on board. The Navy on Tuesday identified the dead crewmen as Lt. John A Zibel, 31, of Coal Center, Pa., the plane's pilot, and Lt. (j.g.) Kevin J. Leslie, 27, of Beverly, Mass., an electronic countermeasures officer.
The EA-6B Prowler had arrived on North Island after 10 a.m. Monday on a training mission from the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington state and was lifting off for home base when it crashed, said Lt. Cmdr. Michael Elliott, a Navy spokesman at Whidbey Island.
Navy officials were aware of published eyewitness reports of power loss in the Prowler's engines, but could not confirm them, according to Lt. Cmdr. Bob Pritchard, a Navy spokesman in San Diego. The Navy has not yet determined the cause of the crash, and investigators planned to interview Mitchell in his hospital room, Pritchard said. Pritchard said he did not know if the interview had taken place.
The plane's full fuel load may have contributed to its destruction, Pritchard suggested. The jet fell to the ground, skidded through a small storage shed, then exploded in flames, according to Navy officials.
Zibel and Mitchell were instructors in the VAQ 129 Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron, which trains all Navy Prowler crews, according to Elliott. Both were seasoned veterans of the EA-6B, and Leslie was a trainee, Elliott said.
The Navy operates about 60 EA-6B Prowlers, almost all of them from the Whidbey Island base, according to Elliott. He declined to provide a complete safety record of the aircraft Tuesday, but said there have been at least 19 EA-6B crashes since 1980."
Sources:
1. http://articles.latimes.com/1989-07-26/local/me-138_1_navy-plane-crashes
2. http://web.archive.org/web/20171103001143/http://www.ejection-history.org.uk:80/aircraft_by_type/a6_prowler.htm
3. http://www.joebaugher.com/navy_serials/thirdseries21.html
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 10-Jan-2009 11:55 | ASN archive | Added |
| 01-Apr-2016 21:32 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Time, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 07-Jul-2023 20:11 | Nepa | Updated [[Time, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]] |
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