Navy radar plane crashes, killing three

NORFOLK, Va. – Three aviators on a twin-engine radar plane that crashed off North Carolina’s coast have died, the Navy said Friday.

Search crews found debris from the E-2C Hawkeye turboprop plane but no bodies, said Mike Maus, a spokesman with the Norfolk-based Atlantic Fleet Naval Air Force.

“The search has been terminated,” Maus said. The aviators were declared dead, he said.

The Navy identified those aboard as Lt. Cameron N. Hall, 30, of Natchitoches, La.; Lt. Ryan K. Betton, 31, of Collinsville, Va.; and Lt. j.g. Jerry R. Smith, 25, of Greenville, Maine.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

The plane had just launched from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman when it went down into the Atlantic Ocean in clear weather about 11 p.m. Wednesday. Navy and Coast Guard crews halted their search Friday morning, Maus said.

The Norfolk-based carrier was about 150 miles southeast of the Virginia Capes, where the Atlantic and the Chesapeake Bay meet. The plane was doing carrier qualification exercises, which involves taking off and landing on a carrier deck.

The plane is from Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 120, based at Norfolk Naval Station.

Hall was a naval flight officer and instructor with the squadron since April 2006, the Navy said. Betton was a pilot who had been an instructor since 2005. Smith was a pilot who had been a student since June 2006.

The E-2C Hawkeye, distinguished by a giant radar dome mounted atop it, is used for airborne command, control and early warning. It normally carries a crew of five, but a full crew is not needed for carrier qualifications.