Instructor presumed dead in trainer crash - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Instructor presumed dead in trainer crash

A 33-year-old instructor pilot is presumed dead after his T-34 Turbomentor crashed into Lake Pontchartrain outside New Orleans on Saturday night, a Navy official said.

Lt. Clinton Wermers and a student pilot left from Naval Air Station Whiting Field, Fla., on a routine training flight using nighttime instruments, said Lt. Brett Dawson, a spokesman for Naval Air Training Command in Corpus Christi, Texas.

They crashed about 7 p.m. as they were approaching Lakefront Airport in New Orleans, Dawson said. The Coast Guard rescued the student pilot from the water about 9 p.m. He was released from the hospital after being treated for moderate injuries and mild hypothermia, Dawson said. The water temperature at the time of the crash was about 52 degrees, a Coast Guard official said.

The cause of the crash is under investigation, Dawson said.

Initial reports indicated both pilots were clinging to the plane before it sank, Coast Guard officials said.

The Coast Guard was looking for Wermers’ body Monday afternoon after the rescue efforts turned into a recovery operation, Dawson said.

The two aviators were from Training Squadron 6 at NAS Whiting Field.

Wermers, originally from South Dakota, was commissioned in 2002. He was previously assigned to an E-6B Mercury squadron at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., Navy records show.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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