Hawker Hunter F Mk 58http://www.air-and-space.com/2005%20Pt%20Mugu.htm
Posted on 05/18/2012 4:43:52 PM PDT by BenLurkin
OXNARD (CBS) — A jet making its way to Point Mugu Naval Air Station crashed in Oxnard Friday, killing the pilot on board, authorities reported.
The Federal Aircraft and Aviation department received reports at 12:15 p.m. of a plane down at Laguna and Protero roads, near Cal State University Channel Islands.
The aircraft is a Hawker Hunter jet registered to Airborne Tactical Advantage Company, a company contracted by the Navy to provide adversary support for fleet exercises off the California coast.
“It’s a civilian-contracted airplane to the Navy, and it was a former military pilot,” Naval Base spokesman Vance Vasquez told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO. “These are not current military airplanes and/or aircraft that are owned by the Navy.”
The plane was returning back to Point Mugu from a mission and crashed into an unpopulated area of Oxnard.
The pilot, a former Navy serviceman, was the only passenger[PASSENGER?] aboard.
Hawker Hunter F Mk 58http://www.air-and-space.com/2005%20Pt%20Mugu.htm
Still had a couple miles to go to the end of the runway. Had to be a failure, he would have been at 1000’ or more on a normal approach. Drove by there for years when I worked at Mugu. Just flat farmland other than Round mountain.
This company got a big contract a couple years ago and have had a pretty good safety record until recently. In the last year they have lost three aircraft with two fatal.
Trying to remember, but was it ATA that used to fly the Kfir out of Mugu? Loved those little planes. They’d park them right below my office window. Had to go out and chock the wheels of one of them once when the Sana Ana winds started rotating one around like a weather vane..
I have several friends flying for them, but it wasn't any of them. One of them had just posted a video to Facebook flying over the cloud deck off San Diego.
“Pilot Killed After Jet Used In Navy Exercises Crashes In Oxnard”
We have us a case of bad headline writing.
Hawker Hunter, a vintage Brit fighter jet.
I need to correct this post. They have had three mishaps, but the first was in 2010. They have lost an A-4, a Kfir, and this Hunter. The Kfir and Hunter were both this spring.
Isn’t a Hunter about the same vintage as an F-100 Super Sabre?
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