Tucson CitizenTucson Citizen

Marine pilots survive Harrier crash

A U.S. Marine Corps Harrier attack jet crashed Thursday while on a training mission in southern Arizona. Both pilots ejected safely, officials said.

The pilots were taken to Yuma Regional Medical Center and were listed in good condition Thursday night.

“The hospital reported they were both conscious and talking,” said Gunnery Sgt. Bill Lisbon of the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma public affairs office.

The jet, assigned to Cherry Point, N.C., went down about 3:30 p.m. on the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range southeast of Yuma, Lisbon said.

The range spans a remote desert area and is used primarily for pilot training.

The aircraft was a TAV-8B Harrier II two-seat trainer jet and “the pilots were here for normal training,” Lisbon said.

He said he did not know what type of training the Harrier was involved in.

Helicopters from the air station’s search and rescue unit recovered the downed pilots, whose identities were not immediately released.

The crash was under investigation and the cause was not known, according to Lisbon.

The Yuma base, home to four Marine Harrier squadrons, is used by Marine aviators around the nation for training and is the world’s busiest Marine Corps air station.

Citizen Online Archive, 2006-2009

This archive contains all the stories that appeared on the Tucson Citizen's website from mid-2006 to June 1, 2009.

In 2010, a power surge fried a server that contained all of videos linked to dozens of stories in this archive. Also, a server that contained all of the databases for dozens of stories was accidentally erased, so all of those links are broken as well. However, all of the text and photos that accompanied some stories have been preserved.

For all of the stories that were archived by the Tucson Citizen newspaper's library in a digital archive between 1993 and 2009, go to Morgue Part 2

Search site | Terms of service