MANILA, Philippines -- A U.S. marine F-4 jet mysteriously disappeared while on routine training in the South China Sea and a navy spokesman said today the two crewmen aboard were 'presumed lost at sea.'
Lt. Stephen Honda, a 7th fleet spokesman at the Subic Bay Naval Base, said the F-4 aircraft was last seen by an accompanying F-4 Saturday at 6:15 p.m. local time, approximately 10 miles southwest of the Naval Air Station at Cubi Point.
Cubi Point, an airfield hacked out of the mountains, is adjacent to Subic, located 60 miles northwest of Manila.
The missing F-4 was piloted by Maj. James E. Cripps, 40, of Laurel Bay, S.C., attached to Marine Corps fighter Squadron VMFA 312 based at Marine Corps Air Station, Beaufort, S.C..
The second crewmember was radar intercept officer Lt. Col. Robert J. Johnson Jr., 41, Burke, Va.
'The plane obviouslylost fuel and obviously it crashed,' Honda said.
Attached to Marine aircraft group MAG 15 at Iwakuni, Japan, the VMFA 312 squadron is currently deployed at Cubi Point, from where the aircraft took off Saturday for 'routine training operations.'
Honda said air and sea units of the 7th fleet had been searching the last known location of the aircraft but as of 7 p.m. today the efforts had been unsuccessful.
