Body Of Third Fairchild Airman Recovered Fourth Body Found In Kc-135 Wreckage As German Churches Hold 24-Hour Vigils

Sat., Jan. 16, 1999

By Jim Camden jimc@spokesman.com (509) 879-7461

The body of a third airman killed in Wednesday’s crash of a Fairchild tanker was recovered Friday in northwest Germany.

A fourth body was located and is expected to be recovered today, Washington Air National Guard officials said.

The area around Geilenkirchen Air Base is wooded and swampy, making recovery difficult, Guard officials said in a statement.

The remains of the four-member flight crew - Maj. David Fite, the pilot; Capt. Kenneth Thiele, co-pilot; Maj. Matthew Laiho, navigator; and Tech. Sgt. Richard Visintainer, the boom operator - eventually will be flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for positive identification.

Local churches in the Geilenkirchen vicinity are conducting 24-hour vigils, and the German community has set up a memorial fund. There will be a memorial service in that community on Monday.

The memorial service in Spokane will be later next week, said Capt. Kay Steward, a spokeswoman for the 141st Air Refueling Wing. The unit, at Fairchild Air Force Base, will wait until the remaining members of the group sent to Geilenkirchen return.

The Air Guard unit sent 29 people and two KC-135 tankers to the base Jan. 3 for a two-week assignment to refuel planes for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

On Wednesday evening, one tanker and its crew of four returned from a mission refueling a Dutch AWACS plane. The plane was coming in for a landing when it rose off the runway and the crew radioed it was going around. The reason for the aborted landing is not known.

The tanker’s nose rose sharply, then the plane tipped to the right. It crashed just beyond the base, exploded and burned for nearly three hours.

Experts in the model of KC-135 flown by the Air Guard have been sent to Germany to join the team investigating the crash. The German base is closed temporarily because the runway is part of that investigation.

The remaining Fairchild crew members also are being delayed to talk to investigators, base officials said.

The Air Guard has established an Air Crew Survivor’s Fund at U.S. Bank’s Fairchild branch. Deposits can be made at any U.S. Bank branch. Money from the fund will be divided equally among the four families.

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