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Vehicle pursuit ends on flight line at Lemoore NAS, damage to F/A-18 Login/Join 
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posted
So, about base security back in 2016... Roll Eyes

Barriers, bollards, obstacles, firearms, nope.
Comms, notification, coordination, nope.
Nevermind, it's only the West coast base for all Navy fighter and strike aircraft, along with HQ for the air wings.
Hopefully, things have been updated and base security is taken seriously.

Base security investigated after Jeep crashes into jet
quote:
Two people are dead after a man fled from police and slammed his Jeep into a fighter jet at Naval Air Station Lemoore.

The female passenger in the SUV was also killed.

The pursuit began in Kings County and was temporarily called off when the driver went against traffic on Highway 198. The chase was picked back up as it returned to the westbound lane of 198 and entered NAS Lemoore through an entry control point. It's not known how the vehicle made it passed armed Navy security at the gate.

The Jeep was spotted by a helicopter that was helping with the search on the base. The vehicle made it several miles into the base before it collided with a parked strike fighter jet.

"What went wrong? Regardless of the security procedures, something went wrong," said Cmdr. Monty Ashliman, the commanding officer of NAS Lemoore. "We had a tragic accident. We had damage to an aircraft and the loss of two lives."

Ashliman didn't describe the damage to the jet. The California Highway Patrol officers didn't disclose the names of the driver or passenger.

Prior to the crash, California Highway Patrol officers stopped along the road late Wednesday night when they noticed a motorist in a Jeep stopped. When the officer approached, the driver sped off.

“As far as why they were running, we don’t have that information at this time,” said CHP Lt. Dave Knoff.

Knoff said he didn't know if drugs or alcohol played a role in the "erratic driving."

The pursuit lasted no longer than 15 to 20 minutes before the collision on the base occurred.

After the crash, the CHP helicopter landed to take custody of the driver and coordinate ground units to the location.

The driver was taken to a hospital via medevac, where he died due to his injuries. The passenger died at the scene.

Ashliman said security protocols will be evaluated.

“We have to figure out a way to prevent that from happening in the future.”

He added that the mulit-million dollar plane won't be going up in their until it's thoroughly inspected.

“There will be an intense effort to ensure that we not only take care of our assets and be good stewards of the tax payers dollars but that it’s absolutely safe before it goes flying again,” he said.

Ashliman said NAS Lemoore remains fully capable to conduct their mission.


Notable scenes

5:52 - 6:10
8:04 - 8:28
10:00 - 10:10
20:43 - end
 
Posts: 14548 | Location: Wine Country | Registered: September 20, 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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FLIR Footage Shows California Highway Patrol Chase Ending In Fatal Crash Into An F/A-18 at NAS Lemoore
quote:
Recently-released footage shows an unauthorized vehicle being pursued by California Highway Patrol inside Naval Air Station Lemoore, California, in 2016.

On the night of Mar. 30 – 31, 2016, a Jeep Grand Cherokee was able to intrude into NAS Lemoore where the vehicle, chased by California Highway Patrol vehicles crashed into the tail end of a parked F/A-18 Hornet jet.

The female passenger died at the scene, while the driver died at the Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno.

A CHP helicopter (“H40”, an Airbus AS350B3 – H125 – registration N975HP) chased the Jeep and filmed the whole scene using its FLIR camera. The footage is particularly interesting as it includes audio and flight data parameters, including the chopper altitude and speed, and also shows (at 05:52) a Hornet performing a touch and go.

You can hear from the radio comms that the helicopter aircrew are concerned of deconfliction with the Hornet in the traffic pattern. Then the Jeep enters the ramp where all the F/A-18s are parked, reaches the threshold of RWY32R before entering the taxiway that leads to the apron to the east of the runway. At 10:06 it hits the stabilizer of one of the Hornets parked there and comes to a stop in a field between the runway and the taxiway.

The H125 lands to take custody of the driver and coordinate ground units to the location.

The episode raised many questions, the most obvious of those is: how could a vehicle pass an armed U.S. Navy security checkpoint and then wander for several minutes inside an active airbase with flying activity in progress?

“What went wrong? Regardless of the security procedures, something went wrong,” said Cmdr. Monty Ashliman, the commanding officer of NAS Lemoore according to an article posted the day after the accident. “We have to figure out a way to prevent that from happening in the future. […] “There will be an intense effort to ensure that we not only take care of our assets and be good stewards of the tax payers dollars but that it’s absolutely safe before it goes flying again” he said.

Security protocols and procedures were updated after the review that followed the accident.

According to the report issued after the accident, hydraulic concrete barriers that raise up from the ground to stop such incursions were deployed only after the Jeep had already passed through. Moreover, the investigation highlighted that CHP officials were unable to notify NAS Lemoore personnel about the pursuit because they were calling an active number that had been provided to them for the base but it “was associated with an NASL building that had been demolished approximately 10 years prior.” Attempts to call on a back up number failed as well. The most concerning part of the report is that sailors at the “checkpoint didn’t know about the SUV until a CHP officer tracking the SUV drove up to the checkpoint booth and informed them.”

Contact between the NASL Regional Dispatch Center and CHP dispatchers was established only “six minutes after the Jeep Grand Cherokee hit the F-18 Hornet.” Furthermore, the report highlighted that the internal mobile radio system used by personnel at NAS Lemoore was not compatible with the equipment in use with the local law enforcement.

The conclusion of the U.S. Navy report recommended that NASL should maintain an updated phone contact list with “all federal, state and local law enforcement entities” and periodically test for two-way communications to verify accuracy, The Hanford Sentinel reported.

There might have been further security changes following the accident, but these have not been made public.

The extent of the damage to the Hornet is also unknown.
 
Posts: 14548 | Location: Wine Country | Registered: September 20, 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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That's unbelievable that they could get on the base and go as far as they did..

Just think if that was a terrorist...


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Posts: 6309 | Location: In transit | Registered: February 19, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Security Sage
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I’m guessing that sheared off chunk of stabilator inflicted serious damage to the occupants of the Cherokee.



RB

Cancer fighter (Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma) since 2009, now fighting Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma.


 
Posts: 7133 | Location: Michiana | Registered: March 01, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
That's just the
Flomax talking
Picture of GaryBF
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What a cluster-fuck. It took forever before any ground backup arrived.
 
Posts: 11875 | Location: St. Louis, Missouri | Registered: February 04, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Last base I was on had bollards set up and you had to run a zig zag at about 15 mph.
 
Posts: 7010 | Registered: April 02, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fighting the good fight
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quote:
Originally posted by corsair:
The episode raised many questions, the most obvious of those is: how could a vehicle pass an armed U.S. Navy security checkpoint and then wander for several minutes inside an active airbase with flying activity in progress?
...
The most concerning part of the report is that sailors at the “checkpoint didn’t know about the SUV until a CHP officer tracking the SUV drove up to the checkpoint booth and informed them.”


Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over?


Big floppy clown shoes.

You can just imagine the conversation in the guard shack.

Guard 1: ... and then her sister showed up.
*Jeep zooms through gate*
Guard 2: Wait, did you hear something?
Guard 1: Nah. Probably just the wind. Anyway, so there I was...
*Patrol car screeches up to the gate*
CHP Officer: Did you see where that Jeep went?
Guards 1 and 2: What Jeep?
CHP: The one that just blew through here doing 80!
Guard 1: Huh? A Jeep came through here?!
Guard 2: Told you I heard something...
*CHP Officer facepalms*
 
Posts: 32400 | Location: Northwest Arkansas | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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It looks like the fighter he hit was on an alert pad. Wonder if it was an active alert pad...





Hedley Lamarr: Wait, wait, wait. I'm unarmed.
Bart: Alright, we'll settle this like men, with our fists.
Hedley Lamarr: Sorry, I just remembered . . . I am armed.
 
Posts: 6842 | Location: Atlanta | Registered: April 23, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The Unmanned Writer
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quote:
Originally posted by RogueJSK:
quote:
Originally posted by corsair:
The episode raised many questions, the most obvious of those is: how could a vehicle pass an armed U.S. Navy security checkpoint and then wander for several minutes inside an active airbase with flying activity in progress?
...
The most concerning part of the report is that sailors at the “checkpoint didn’t know about the SUV until a CHP officer tracking the SUV drove up to the checkpoint booth and informed them.”


Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over?


Big floppy clown shoes.

You can just imagine the conversation in the guard shack.

Guard 1: ... and then her sister showed up.
*Jeep zooms through gate*
Guard 2: Wait, did you hear something?
Guard 1: Nah. Probably just the wind. Anyway, so there I was...
*Patrol car screeches up to the gate*
CHP Officer: Did you see where that Jeep went?
Guards 1 and 2: What Jeep?
CHP: The one that just blew through here doing 80!
Guard 1: Huh? A Jeep came through here?!
Guard 2: Told you I heard something...
*CHP Officer facepalms*


Then too, if it was a Marine base:

Radio: "Hey Corporal, did you bring full mag like I told you?"

Cpl "Sure did Sargent, just like you told me"

Radio: "Well lock n load baby,it's high-speed Jeep season and just don't hit the cars with those red and blue lights flashing"

Cpl "oh fuck, I only brought three magazines"







Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.



Only in an insane world are the sane considered insane.


The memories of a man in his old age
Are the deeds of a man in his prime


 
Posts: 14020 | Location: It was Lat: 33.xxxx Lon: 44.xxxx now it's CA :( | Registered: March 22, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of dsiets
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Can we get a Jeep Kill icon for that F-18?
 
Posts: 7313 | Location: MI | Registered: May 22, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
semi-reformed sailor
Picture of MikeinNC
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Bet they don’t have Marines guarding the gates, like they did back in the old days.
Late.y the only base I’ve been to had rent a cops at the gates...

Even the Army base near me.



"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” Robert A. Heinlein

“You may beat me, but you will never win.” sigmonkey-2020

“A single round of buckshot to the torso almost always results in an immediate change of behavior.” Chris Baker
 
Posts: 11233 | Location: Temple, Texas! | Registered: October 07, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
I believe in the
principle of
Due Process
Picture of JALLEN
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quote:
Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Bet they don’t have Marines guarding the gates, like they did back in the old days.
Late.y the only base I’ve been to had rent a cops at the gates...

Even the Army base near me.


I’m not sure it makes much difference.

When a sailor taxied an A-4 out the Main Gate at NAS North Island, the Marines didn’t try to stop him. They saluted, because a pilot is an officer, right?

When something weird happens, well outside their instructions, they often don’t know what to do and do nothing.




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I can't be the only one that wishes they would've heard the rat-a-tat-tat-tat of a 20mm going off, or seen a Hellfire go whizzing towards it?



“I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.”
 
Posts: 2863 | Location: SE WI | Registered: October 07, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I can only IMAGINE what the damage on this F18 costs to fix. I have found military bases and seaports woefully under-protected.
 
Posts: 21335 | Registered: June 12, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Damn...where’s Blue Thunder or Airwolf when you need them???


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Posts: 714 | Location: NE Iowa | Registered: October 30, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Coin Sniper
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It boggles the mind that a vehicle could drive that long on a military base, under observation by helicopter, with no intervention until after the crash.

Did base security have to get out of bed?




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Posts: 37906 | Location: Above the snow line in Michigan | Registered: May 21, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The Whack-Job
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Hopefully Base Security won't make the same mistakes - at their next jobs. Regards 18DAI


7+1 Rounds of hope and change
 
Posts: 4231 | Registered: August 13, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Character, above all else
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quote:
Originally posted by Rightwire:
It boggles the mind that a vehicle could drive that long on a military base, under observation by helicopter, with no intervention until after the crash.

I spent more than a few years at this base, and it doesn't surprise me. This base actually MAKES money because a vast majority of the land is leased to farmers, and they need access to the fields without a pesky fence getting in the way. The land is very flat, so a Jeep driving all over the place would be quite easy (although I am kinda surprised the driver didn't end up in an irrigation canal).

Add in the confusing factor of night, no lights on the Jeep, comm issues between civil and military authorities, and a sleepy little base where nothing like this ever happens... and I can see where base security would not have a clue what was going on or where it was happening. Doesn't make it right, and no doubt some protocols and procedures have changed as a result. But besides being a social desert, NASL really is in the middle of nowhere.

RHINOWSO and other have spent some time at NASL too. I'll be interested in reading their thoughts.




"The Truth, when first uttered, is always considered heresy."
 
Posts: 2538 | Location: West of Fort Worth | Registered: March 05, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Like a party
in your pants
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Makes me sick watching that cluster fuck.
 
Posts: 4604 | Location: Chicago, IL, USA: | Registered: November 17, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Go ahead punk, make my day
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Not surprising.
 
Posts: 45798 | Registered: July 12, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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