ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 77347
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| Date: | Thursday 3 December 1981 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Hawker Siddeley AV-8C Harrier |
| Owner/operator: | VMA-513 / USMC |
| Registration: | 158704 |
| MSN: | 712101/23 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Mojave Desert, near Twentynine Palms, California -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | MCAS Yuma, Arizona (KNYL) |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Crashed at Twentynine Palms, CA during a practice low level bombing run. Cause attributed to a faulty altimeter give a false reading of the aircraft's height
Obituary of pilot:
CAPT. JEFFREY C. FISHBAUGH
Call Sign: Bones Died: Dec. 3, 1981
Soon after Fishbaugh left for a month long training exercise in California, a surprise arrived at the family's home in Cherry Point.
He had arranged to have flowers delivered weekly during his absence. There was a bouquet for his wife and his 4-year-old daughter.
"She carried that little bouquet around until it fell apart and the next one came," said his widow, Alexis Fishbaugh Rainey. "That's one of her last memories of him."
He died one day before the exercises were to end when his AV-8A Harrier crashed in the desert during a practice bombing run near Twentynine Palms.
He was 27. Besides his wife and daughter, he left a 6-month-old son.
The investigation report did not cite a cause, but noted that Fishbaugh had previously complained that the radar altimeter was inoperative. The recovered barometric altimeter read 2,500 feet -- 200 feet lower than the impact site, noted the investigator, 1st Lt. Robert G. Wilson Jr.
Wilson was originally scheduled to fly the day Fishbaugh was killed. But when the planned sortie was replaced at the last minute with a more advanced maneuver, an instructor decided Wilson was too inexperienced. Fishbaugh agreed to take his place. Wilson died in a Harrier crash three months later.
Sources:
http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6725
http://www.joebaugher.com/navy_serials/thirdseries20.html
http://www.harrier.org.uk/history/AV8APROD.PDF
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 07-Sep-2010 14:30 | ASN Archive | |
| 04-Aug-2011 00:38 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Cn, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 28-Aug-2011 22:05 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Operator] |
| 28-Dec-2020 09:57 | Anon. | Updated [Narrative] |
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