News :: Miscellaneous
Spy Plane Crew Dies in Okinawa Crash
Four US Servicemen die during "exercises" of spy plane on Japaese Island
By Brandon Sprague
Seattle Times reporter
Lt. Patrick Sean Myrick was one of four Navy airmen whose S-3B Viking aircraft crashed into an uninhabited Japanese island near Iwo Jima during military exercises in the Pacific Ocean last week. There were no survivors, the Navy reported.
The S-3B Viking, a twin engine jet plane originally designed to sink Soviet submarines, also is used by the Navy as surveillance aircraft. Lt. Myrick's squadron was deployed to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
The crew was flying a routine training mission as part of the Joint Air-Sea Exercise with the Stennis and USS Kitty Hawk carrier in the vicinity of Iwo Jima island chain when communications were lost at approximately 7:42 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 10, the Navy said.
An investigation into the crash is ongoing. Lt. Myrick will be buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.
The Associated Press contributed