Wednesday, March 28, 2001

By Rick Emert and Eric B. Pilgrim, Stars and Stripes

LAUF, Germany — Investigators combed through wreckage Tuesday trying to find out why a Wiesbaden reconnaissance aircraft crashed near Nuremberg Monday afternoon, killing two military-intelligence warrant officers.

Chief Warrant Officer George A. Graves, 44, and Chief Warrant Officer Lance L. Hill, 43, were flying a twin-engine RC-12K reconnaissance aircraft on a routine training mission over Lauf, a village about 8 miles northeast of Nuremberg, when the incident occurred, according to Army officials.

"It appears that it crashed nose first, and [the crash] was at a steep angle to the mountain," said Ali Bettencourt, a V Corps spokeswoman at the site.

The plane’s wreckage was tightly contained in a small area, about 50 meters by 100 meters, said Maj. Scott Slaten, a U.S. Army Europe spokesman at the site. The remains were airlifted from the scene sometime late Tuesday afternoon, Slaten said.

The two 205th Military Intelligence Brigade pilots left Wiesbaden around 3 p.m. and were expected to return about 6:30 that evening, officials said. The plane crashed shortly before 4 p.m. Both pilots were assigned to Company B, 1st Military Intelligence Battalion at Wiesbaden, Germany.

A 10-person disaster and mortuary-affairs response team got to the site by 11 p.m. Monday, mainly to recover remains for the families, said Lt. Col. Kathleen M. Ingwersen, an Armed Forces Regional medical examiner.

Team members are forensic experts from U.S. European Command and U.S. Central Command. The teams consist of two medical examiners, a forensic dentologist, the director of U.S. Army Memorial Affairs Activity, Europe, and six search-and-recovery members. Besides removing the bodies, the team also gathered evidence for commanders, safety boards and legal experts to analyze.

While the team set up Monday, soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, based in Vilseck, Germany, secured the site and remained in place until Tuesday afternoon, Slaten said.

The press was not allowed near the accident site until two investigators from the Army Aviation Center in Fort Rucker, Ala., arrived Tuesday evening.

Officials at the scene said they would not give further details on the accident until the investigation was completed.

Two Pentagon officials speaking on anonymity said the pilots were trying to reach the airport in Nuremberg. Approach-control radar was monitoring the aircraft’s progress, said Hilde Patton, a spokeswoman for V Corps.

The airplane was not part of the Warfighter training exercise involving headquarters elements from the 1st Armored and 1st Infantry divisions that is scheduled to start in the Grafenwöhr training facility next week, Patton said.

Beechcraft twin-engine propeller airplanes like the one that crashed carry two pilots and no ammunition. The RC-12K is part of a family of intelligence-gathering aircraft able to fly between 20,000- and 35,000-feet high for about 5½ hours without refueling, according to the Federation of American Scientists Internet Web site.

An onboard computer program called the Guardrail Common Sensor gathers low, midrange and high-band radio signals, then relays that information in near real-time back to commanders.

Only four Army units fly the RC-12 aircraft. Before the crash, the 205th MI maintained eight airplanes at Wiesbaden Army Airfield.

Hill, from Paradise, Calif., is survived by his wife, 10-year-old daughter and his mother. The U.S. Total Army Personnel Command has not located Graves’ next of kin at this time, according to Army officials.

A memorial service is scheduled at the Hainerberg Chapel in Wiesbaden at 11 a.m. Thursday.

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