Desert Shield Training Flights Resume After Grounding
U.S. Air Force war planes participating in Operation Desert Shield are flying again after they were ordered grounded for 24 hours following a rash of crashes. Pentagon and Air Force officials said regular training flight schedules resumed Thursday at noon local time (5 a.m. EDT). The flights account for a majority of U.S. air missions in the Persian Gulf region. The Air Force ``has not changed anything'' in flight operations as a result of the suspension of flights, Capt. A.C. Roper, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said in Saudi Arabia. He said Air Force officials wanted to ``examine potential hazards and to be sure they were doing everything possible to prevent accidents. ``They have not identified any common cause or common contributing factors'' to the recent accidents, he added. At the Pentagon, spokesman Pete Williams said the number of U.S. aircraft accidents in the gulf - including three separate crashes this week - were not out of the ordinary. However, suspension of training flights indicated otherwise. Williams said the Air Force gave its pilots in the gulf ``safety awareness'' briefings during the flight ban in order ``to review what they need to do to fly more safely.'' Aircraft on operational missions were not grounded, said Col. Miguel Monteverde, another Pentagon spokesman. Those included reconnaissance aircraft, refueling tanker planes and F-15 jets patrolling areas near the Kuwait or Iraqi borders. He said pilots of those planes received special safety briefings but their flight schedules were not changed. ``So there was no degradation of our ability to defend ourselves,'' Monteverde said. Desert Shield, the largest U.S. military buildup since the Vietnam War, involves an estimated 700 Air Force combat and support aircraft. Williams said information about the number of flight hours in Desert Shield is classified and will not be disclosed. As a result, he said, he could not compare the accident rate with that of previous deployments. The toll for accidental deaths since Operation Desert Shield began rose to 31 on Wednesday when an Air Force F-111 fighter-bomber crashed on a training mission in Saudi Arabia, killing both crew members. On Monday, two pilots were killed in the crash of an Air Force F-4 Phantom reconnaissance jet in Saudi Arabia, and just hours earlier two Marine Corps UH-1 Huey helicopters, each carrying four crew members, crashed over the Arabian Sea, killing all eight men. Williams said the Air Force was the only service that has taken special measures to review safety in the gulf since this week's accidents. ``They're concerned about the accidents, they're concerned about the number of accidents that happened so quickly over a short period of time,'' he told reporters. He said, however, that the military's safety record in Desert Shield remained good. ``Given the amount of flying that has to be done, given the extraordinary circumstances and given the higher than ordinary operating tempo in the area, I think our service people are doing very well, but any accident is cause for concern,'' he said. Five U.S. aircraft have been involved in fatal crashes in the gulf area since the start of Desert Shield two months ago: an F-111, an F-4 Phantom reconnaissance jet, an F-15E and two Marine Corps UH-1 Huey helicopters. Also, a C-5 transport plane crashed in West Germany while ferrying equipment to Saudi Arabia. Also, 20 other aircraft have been involved in non-fatal accidents in the gulf area, Williams said. Fifteen of those were helicopters.
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