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Date: | Wednesday 27 July 1977 |
Time: | |
Type: | Hawker Siddeley AV-8A Harrier |
Owner/operator: | VMA-542 / USMC |
Registration: | 158953 |
MSN: | 712114/36 |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
Location: | Bay River, Pamlico County, off MCAS Cherry Point, NC -
United States of America
|
Phase: | En route |
Nature: | Military |
Departure airport: | Cherry Point MCAS (NKT/KNKT) |
Destination airport: | |
Confidence Rating: | Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Narrative:Crashed into the Bay River, off MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina. Approx co-ordinates Latitude: 35-09'59'' N, Longitude: 076-31'45'' W
Pilot failed to eject, and was killed
Obituary of Pilot:
CAPT. ANTHONY FRANOVICH JR.
Call Sign: Bayou Died: July 26, 1977
Franovich was the first in his large, extended Cajun family to explore life beyond the oil rigs off Louisiana's Gulf Coast, said his widow, Pam Franovich Kinard. After graduating from Louisiana State University, he joined the Marines and flew F-4 Phantoms. He requested a transfer to the Harrier program in North Carolina shortly after they lost their 2-week-old firstborn child, she said.
One day the base commander dropped in on a meeting of officers' wives. "He and the chaplain told us that they knew there were a lot of fears, but we needed to support our husbands," Kinard said. "They brought out a wife whose husband had to eject from the Harrier but survived. He died later in another Harrier accident."
She knew it was her turn when she saw a chaplain approaching at the Cherry Point base hospital, where she had taken their second child for a routine checkup. Witnesses saw Franovich's AV-8A descend into the Bay River in the rain and explode. An investigation couldn't determine the cause. Franovich was 32.
Four months after his death, Kinard gave birth to their third child, a son she named Tony.
Sources:
http://www.joebaugher.com/navy_serials/thirdseries20.html http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6725
http://www.harrier.org.uk/history/AV8APROD.PDF
http://www.lat-long.com/Latitude-Longitude-980658-North_Carolina-Bay_River.html
Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
07-Sep-2010 14:30 |
ASN Archive |
|
03-Aug-2011 12:04 |
Dr.John Smith |
Updated [Cn, Operator, Location, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |