Carrier Tomcats Grounded

The Navy has temporarily stopped flying F-14 Tomcat fighters off its aircraft carriers because of suspicions a problem with a wheel assembly contributed to a fatal crash of one of the jets in March.

Though the investigation into the crash is not complete, the Navy wants all of its 156 Tomcats inspected, because it appears the cause of the crash was corrosion to a part of the nose wheel assembly used to catapult the aircraft from carriers, officials said Wednesday.

On March 2, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christopher M. Blaschum, 33, of Virginia Beach, Va., died after ejecting from his F-14. It crashed during a training exercise off the USS John F. Kennedy in the Mediterranean Sea as the carrier was making its way to the deploy in the war in Afghanistan.

Inspections of the 22 Tomcats on the USS Kennedy are already under way and is expected to be completed within two weeks, said Navy spokesman Ensign David Luckett.

"We expect it to have minimal impact in the war against terrorism," Luckett said of the Monday order suspending carrier operations of the Tomcat.

"Other aircraft on board (the Kennedy) are working to assume the missions where possible until the F-14s are back up and flying," he said.

Take off from a carrier is harder then shore flights on the landing gear. When taking off from a carrier the nose assembly of the airplane is hooked to a catapult, which hurls the plane from the deck, accelerating from 0 mph to 150 mph in two seconds.

The day after the crash, Blaschum's radar intercept officer indicated that the nose wheel assembly disintegrated as their Tomcat was being shot from the Kennedy's deck, The Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported Wednesday. Riding in the plane's back seat, Lt. j.g. Rafe Wysham, 25, was able to eject safely.

The Navy's carriers have played a major role in the war, deploying in the Arabian Sea as bases for aircraft and special forces fighting in the landlocked country.