Navy Pilot Missing Following Crash

A Navy pilot was rescued Wednesday evening and a second was missing after an S-3A Viking jet went down in the ocean about 70 miles south of San Clemente Island, a Navy spokesman said.

A ship and four aircraft from the Navy and U.S. Coast Guard were searching for the second pilot late Wednesday, said Ken Mitchell, public affairs officer for the North Island Naval Air Station.

Neither pilot was identified pending notification of their families, he said. The pilot who was rescued appeared to be uninjured, Mitchell said. He was taken to shore on a destroyer.

The crash occurred shortly before the plane’s scheduled return to North Island at 4 p.m., Mitchell said. The cause of the crash was unknown.

The jet, which usually has a crew of four and belongs to Air Anti-Submarine Squadron 29, carried only a crew of two when it left the naval station Wednesday on a “refresher training course for pilots,” Mitchell said.