Navy pilot who crashed in Lake Pontchartrain is presumed dead

nola.com ^ | 1-25-10 | Paul Purpura

[smokingfrog]

A Navy pilot whose training airplane crashed Saturday in Lake Pontchartrain is presumed dead, and the search has shifted from a rescue to a recovery mission, a Navy spokesman said Monday.

As of Monday afternoon, the Coast Guard was still searching for the pilot, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Jaclyn Young in New Orleans.

Navy Lt. Clinton Wermers, 33, a native of Mitchell, S.D., was an instructor pilot aboard a T-34C Turbomentor airplane that also carried a Navy student aviator who survived the crash, Navy spokesman Jay Cope said Monday. The aviators were assigned to Training Squadron Six, based at Naval Air Station, Whiting Field, near Pensacola, Fla.

Because of privacy concerns, the Navy is not releasing the name of the student aviator, whom the Coast Guard rescued Saturday about two hours after the 7 p.m. crash about a mile north of New Orleans Lakefront Airport, Cope said.

The student pilot was released from West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero on Monday, and was to return to Whiting Field, he said.

“He had minor injuries and some hypothermia,” Cope said.

The pilots were on a “routine” night flight using aviation instruments and were on a final approach to a landing at Lakefront Airport when the airplane crash-landed in the 57-degree lake waters, Cope said.

Air traffic controllers at Lakefront Airport notified the Coast Guard Saturday at about 6:40 p.m., reporting that the airplane dropped off radar, according to the Coast Guard. The agency said it received initial reports that both pilots clung to the floating airplane before it sank.

[smokingfrog]

Wermers had been based at Whiting Field about three years, Cope said. He received his commission as a naval officer in 2002 and served in fleet air reconnaissance squadrons before he began training other aviators.

[Tuscaloosa Goldfinch]

Prayers up - hoping for a miracle.

[zoomdownrotorswhirring]

His family is in our prayers, and may God prosper his line.

[microgood]

The price of freedom is extremely high. It is hard to lose your bravest men, and when you do pray that there are those who will take their place.

I pray for the pilot and the aviator that survived.

[patlin]

Prayers & God's Grace & Peace to the families, friends & troops.

There has been nothing on the local news so far. I'll keep an ear and eye out for news from SD.

[TChad]

The search was suspended -- ?

Wermers and the student tried to stay afloat. After a couple hours of swimming, the student was rescued and taken to a local hospital, but Wermers' body still hasn't been found.

From here:

http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/local_news/pensacola/search-for-nas-pilot-suspended

[Chgogal]

Prayers up for our Navy Fly Boys and their families.

[El Gato]

Funny they had no trouble releasing the name of the F/A-18 pilot who managed to put his bird into someone's house, killing a child, the mother and grandmother. He was headed into Miramar MCAS because he had engine problems and they though that better than trying to put it back on the boat.

Unfortunately the approach from the west has gotten pretty cluttered with housing developments, businesses and such. Perhaps another field, like North Island, Imperial Beach, or Camp Pendleton would have been better choices for a sick bird, although their runway are shorter than Miramar's. He did try to put it in a "greenbelt" type of area, but just missed it. He punched out and survived.

[smokingfrog]

I did find it curious that the student was rescued but the instructor pilot was not. The student apparently only had minor injuries, but I suppose the instructor’s injuries may have been more serious. Normally, the first rule in a situation like that is that both would stick together and not be separated. Still unclear how long it took the plane to sink or how long they may have been in the water. Hypothermia would be the main thing that would get you.

[smokingfrog]

Perhaps the student aviator was a minor?

[TChad]

I did find it curious that the student was rescued but the instructor pilot was not.

If the instructor's body was found in the submerged plane, he wouldn't be referred to as "presumed" dead. If his body was not found, then why does the Navy not consider it probable that he made it to land? There must be more to the story.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

TANKS,,,Prayers Up from here too,,,

Looks like the Pilot held on till the Student punched out.

GOD Bless...

[patlin]

From our local news: Missing Navy Pilot From Mt. Vernon

http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm?Id=95716

We just got home & this is the 1st news. It must have came out right after we left for the granddaughters.

[smokingfrog]

Thanks for the link. Another one I found today.

http://www.ksfy.com/news/local/82757897.html

[patlin]

Thanks. I hadn’t check that station yet.

Here is the other local station, KDLT whos roots are in Mitchell & is now based in Sioux Falls:

http://www.kdlt.com/news/012610n1.html

Being that the stories broke late in the day, my guess is we will hear more from the families and get more info throughout the week. I will keep abreast & post what comes across.