Stealth Fighter Crashes, Explodes, Killing Pilot Accident In New Mexico Occurs During Routine Training Mission
A stealth fighter on a routine training mission crashed and exploded on an Indian reservation, killing the pilot.
The $46 million F-117A slammed into the arid foothills of the Zuni Mountains in northwest New Mexico late Wednesday night, officials said. The Air Force was investigating.
The single-pilot aircraft was assigned to the 49th Fighter Wing at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo in southern New Mexico. It crashed on the Zuni Indian Reservation, more than 200 miles northwest of Holloman.
The body of the pilot, Capt. Kenneth W. Levens of Stamford, Texas, was pulled from the burned wreckage, Holloman spokesman Bob Pepper said. Levens’ age was not released.
In August 1992, another stealth fighter crashed near the base. The pilot ejected and was not seriously injured.
There have been at least three other crashes of the once supersecret planes - one when Lockheed was testing the jet, and two fatal wrecks in California and Nevada in 1986 and 1987.
The planes use special design and materials to make them less visible on radar screens. During much of the 1980s it was such a secret project that the military didn’t acknowledge the stealth fighter existed.
The aircraft’s high-tech weaponry and ability to fly covertly made it well known during the Gulf War. None were lost in combat.