Navy Jet Clips Line; Pilots, Car Driver Ok

Two Navy fliers and a motorist narrowly escaped injury Friday when a Navy jet clipped a power line over a north-central Washington highway.

The A-6E Intruder attack bomber returned safely to the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station about 50 miles north of Seattle with “some damage to the right wing,” base spokesman Howard Thomas said.

The Grant County Public Utility District’s 230,000-volt power line, which connects Wanapum Dam with a Bonneville Power Administration substation, fell and hit the windshield of a pickup truck on Washington 28, then ripped the camper off the truck bed, State Patrol troopers said.

Truck driver Steve Shoop of Wenatchee was not hurt.

Residents in Wenatchee, about 15 miles north of the scene, and the surrounding area experienced a brief power surge and the two-lane road was closed for a time.