It is the Department of Defense’s policy to withhold the names of service members killed until 24 hours after their families are notified. The notifications were completed Monday.
All three were stationed on Whidbey Island. Their names are:
- Lieutenant Junior Grade Valerie Cappelaere Delaney; Naval Aviator; 26; from Ellicott City, Md.
- Lieutenant Junior Grade William Brown McIlvaine III; Naval Flight Officer, 24; from El Paso, Texas.
- Lieutenant Commander Alan A. Patterson; Naval Flight Officer, 34; from Tullahoma, Tenn.
Cappelaere’s husband, Sean Delaney, said on Tuesday he is still trying to process the reality of losing his wife.
Delaney also works at NAS Whidby Island. The couple just got married last year in Maryland. The couple moved into a home in the Anacortes area not too long ago and close friends say Cappelaere was both beautiful in the inside and out. They say she was one of those people who was always smiling and positive.
Friends also said they new her job as a Navy pilot was dangerous. But when tragedy actually hits, the grief is hard to take in.
“That morning I didn’t want to believe it was her I mean I actually texted her immediately I said I hope you are OK I am praying for you I am sure it is someone you know but then to find out it was actually her you don’t want to believe anything terrible is going to happen to anyone you know in the military,” said close friend Alyssa Clawson.
“We are doing everything we can in a time of loss like this there is nothing we can do that is adequate so we are there for anything they need,” close friend Benjamin Clawson said.
Other neighbors said their thoughts are with the other two pilots who lost their lives. Neighbors said Mcilvaine was not married but had a girlfriend and also lived in the Anacortes area.
Experts said the crash investigation could take up to a year.
Story, video, photos: http://q13fox.com
SPOKANE, Wash. -- The pilot and two crew members aboard the EA-6B Prowler Monday are part of the only electronic warfare combat team in the entire military system.
The squadron is a highly-specialized team of pilots known as the Electronic Attack Squadron 129, or the “Fighting Vikings.” They regularly perform training exercises in Eastern Washington, including touch-and-go landings are Fairchild Air Force Base.
Western Washington’s Whidbey Island is home to the only electronic attack weapons school in the military. The pilots are extensively trained to enter hostile territory and intercept enemy communications, weapons or intelligence.
Crews usually consist of a pilot and two or three electronic countermeasures officers. Their task is to jam enemy radar systems and gather radio intelligence. Their plane also has the capability of carrying and firing anti-radiation missiles.
The team is a close-knit one. On their Facebook page Monday, comments showed sincere grief for the ones lost and pride in the squadron’s ongoing missions.
The Navy says names of those killed will not be released until Tuesday at the earliest. Protocol allows for at least 24 hours after the families are notified before the information is released to the public.
Navy investigators responded to the scene Monday to try to piece together exactly how the crash happened. Still, there is little of the plane left to examine what happened.
Story and Video: http://www.krem.com
SPOKANE, Wash. -- The particular aircraft that crashed down in Lincoln County is exclusive to the Whidbey Island “Fighting Vikings.”
The EA-6B Prowler is a four-seat attack aircraft, which routinely flies in the area. This includes monthly touch-and-go landings at Fairchild Air Force Base. Local authorities say that’s to make sure pilots are familiar with the runways around Spokane in case they ever need to land here.
It’s part of the routine for the military aviators, who train in this region.
The Prowler is one of only two tactical aircraft in the entire U.S. Military capable of performing an electronic attack. It’s sent into hostile territory and is able to intercept and scramble enemy signals, weapons and communication. Both of the planes with these capabilities are stationed out of Whidbey Island and routinely train on this side of the mountains.
The Prowler is considered an attack plane, so it carries heavy fire power. It’s able to carry and fire anti-radiation missiles.
The plane has been used in conflicts dating back to the Vietnam War through Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan. None have ever been lost in combat. However, the aircraft did crash in Umatilla County in Eastern Oregon in 2006. It was also a remote area used for training purposes. In that crash, all four crew members were able to eject safely.
It’s still unknown what caused Monday’s crash, nor why the pilot and passengers were unable to escape.
On the Fighting Vikings’ Facebook page, friends and family members expressed great sorrow for those who lost their lives.
Story and Video: http://www.krem.com
EA-6B Prowler on routine training flight at time of crash
(Photo: Stan Dammel)
NAS Whidbey jet crash west of Spokane
Credit: HaLee Walter, neighbor
(Photo: Stan Dammel)
EA-6B Prowler on routine training flight at time of crash
NAS Whidbey jet crash west of Spokane
Credit: HaLee Walter, neighbor
Photo courtesy: The Spokesman Review
Photo courtesy: HaLee Walter
Credit: US Navy
Navy
EA-6B Prowler
Video:
Footage from front cockpit of an EA-6B Prowler on the first half of the
VR-1355 low-level route through the Cascade Mountains in Western
Washington. Aircraft is flying 500 feet above the ground at an average
speed of 420 kts.
Lincoln County Sheriff Wade Magers confirmed that three people were on board and all are believed dead. The US Navy has not confirmed the deaths of the aircrew but did confirm the aircraft involved was assigned to VAQ-129 "Vikings," the Navy's training squadron that teaches new aircrew in flight operations of both the Prowler and the EA-18G Growler.
The Prowler typically has a four-person aircrew consisting of a pilot and up to three electronic countermeasures officers.
The Prowler reportedly went down just after 9 a.m., near Coffee Pot Lake Road and Duck Lake Lamona Road west of Harrington and northeast of Odessa, according to Scott McGowan, fire chief for Lincoln County Fire District No. 6.
HaLee Walter lives near the scene where the aircraft went down and said she heard what she described as a sonic boom and then her whole house shook.
"My kids and my dog ran upstairs, and then I had gone outside and I could hear another a military aircraft because they fly all the time down here and they're very loud and we're used to them, and I could hear the aircraft and I'm like 'Oh you know maybe it was just a sonic boom,'" she said.
"I called my husband and I'm like 'Did you just feel that? Did you hear that?' and he's like yeah, he's like 'I think an airplane just went down, I just saw a huge plume of smoke north of the house.'"
"I went outside and of course I could see the smoke and then I took my son and we drove other there because it didn't look like it was very far from our house, and the ambulance and police and fire trucks were all there and [the] plane had gone down and there was still another military aircraft circling," she added.
A crew from the National Transportation Safety Board is heading to the scene and should be there around 11 a.m.
Whidbey Island NAS is home to the U.S. Navy's tactical electronic warfare squadrons, which fly the EA-6B Prowler and the EA-18G Growler. The Growler is based on the F/A-18 Hornet fighter attack aircraft and carries a two-person crew. The Growler is being phased into service to replace the Prowler, which carries a four-person crew.
Navy aircrews fly across Eastern Washington for training exercises, according to Kim Martin, a public information officer for Whidbey Island, who confirmed an overflight of two pair of Growlers over the Spokane area in September 2011.
"It was a routine training session. That's a designated military training route part of their flight training curriculum," Martin said in 2011.
In addition to being home to the Navy's electronic warfare squadrons, the Navy's Electronic Attack Weapons School is based at Whidbey Island NAS. The school trains aircrews in the tactical operations of the Navy's Prowlers and Growlers.
The last mishap involving an EA-6B Prowler in our area was in March 2006, when a Prowler with VAQ-135 "Black Ravens" went down during a training exercise in a remote area of Umatilla County in northeastern Oregon. All four crewmen aboard the aircraft ejected safely.
KXLY's Aaron Luna reports that crews at the crash scene are also dealing with hazardous materials from the rockets that propel the aircrew's ejection seats.
The EA-6B is equipped with the Martin-Baker GRUEA-7 ejection seat, which allows the aircrew to eject from the aircraft from zero altitude and a minimum of 80 knots. The seats contain explosive cartridges and rockets which fire the seats through the canopy of the aircraft.
The Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler is based on the A-6 Intruder platform and was first introduced into the fleet in 1970. While they have served in combat in conflicts ranging from Vietnam to Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan, none have ever been lost in combat.
However, numerous EA-6Bs have been lost during peacetime, In 1998, Whidbey Island NAS dedicated a memorial to 44 aircrew who have died in Prowler crashes. Monday's crash is the first fatal mishap involving a Prowler since 1998.
One of the most significant peacetime mishaps involving a Prowler was in 1998, when a Marine EA-6B flying low over terrain cut the cable line for a gondola in Cavalese, Italy. Twenty civilians in the gondola were killed when the cable snapped. The aircraft sustained damage but was able to return to Aviano Air Base in Italy.
- Fact Sheet: EA-6B Prowler
- Navy Prowler crashes in Lincoln County
- Video: Raw footage from Prowler crash site
- Video: Three believed dead in Navy Prowler crash in Lincoln...
- Video: Navy aircraft down in Lincoln County
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