LEMOORE (KMJ) — NAS Lemoore says the safety of their personnel wasn’t threatened, after an SUV broke onto the air station and crashed into a plane – killing the two people inside. A security investigation is now underway – to determine how the vehicle got onto the base.
The chase started around midnight Thursday, when CHP Officers attempted to stop a vehicle for failing to yield, close to the intersection of Highway 41 and Jackson Avenue. That sparked a pursuit which saw the vehicle going the wrong way down Highway 198, and ended when it broke through one of the official entry points at NAS Lemoore and crashed into an FA-18E.
“Regardless of procedures we have in place, something went wrong”, says installation Commanding Officer Captain Monty Ashliman. “These [situations] are extremely rare, and that’s for a lot of reasons. There’s certainly a lot of times we have to turn individuals around because they’ve forgotten their identification”.
But now the focus has turned towards how it happened, and what can be done to prevent it happening again.
“There will be a few investigations that will go on”, continues Captain Ashliman. “California Highway Patrol will have an investigation. We will have an investigation with our security detachment”.
“The only thing I would like to add with regards to the individuals who are deceased, is that it has also been assessed at this time that there is no military affiliation with those two individuals”.
The driver of the vehicle collided with the horizontal stabilizer of the FA-18E. He was taken to a hospital where he ultimately died as a result of his injuries, the passenger was declared dead at the scene.
Hear the first report from KMJ’s Dominic McAndrew at NAS Lemoore:
