Jim Thompson
| Northwest Florida Daily News
NAS WHITING FIELD, Fla. – A U.S. Navy training plane from Naval Air Station Whiting Field crashed at approximately 5 p.m. Friday in Magnolia Springs, Alabama, killing both crew members on board, according to Commander Zach Harrell, a spokesman for the office of the commander of Naval Air Forces.
The Navy “is not aware of any civilian casualties at this time,” according to a brief statement on the Naval Air Forces’ Facebook page, and the “Navy is cooperating fully with local authorities.” The aircraft that crashed was a T-6B Texan II training plane.
According to the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office in Alabama, no civilians on the ground were injured, although a home in the area did catch fire as a result of the crash.
The names of the two air crew members were not immediately available Friday night, and “will not be released until 24 hours after the next-of-kin notification,” according to the Facebook post.
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In a brief telephone interview Friday evening, Harrell said he did not expect any additional details on the crash to be released until sometime Saturday.
Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office and fire units were called to the scene, but the Sheriff’s Office was deferring further comment on the incident to military authorities.
“DOD (Department of Defense) and Navy personnel will be handling the investigation and will provide further updates,” the Sheriff’s Office noted Friday evening via Twitter.
Magnolia Springs is approximately 100 miles southwest of Whiting Field, just west of Foley, Alabama and between the Alabama towns of Fairhope and Gulf Shores.
Whiting Field is a primary initial training location for Navy aviators.
Contributing: The Associated Press
Source: USA Today
