Rep. seeks F/A-18 records following crash

[unhappycamper]

Rep. seeks F/A-18 records following crash
By Elliot Spagat - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Dec 9, 2008 22:25:40 EST

SAN DIEGO — A high-ranking congressman on Tuesday called on the Marine Corps to release the maintenance records of all its F/A-18D Hornet fighters after one of the jets lost power and crashed into a neighborhood, killing four members of a single family.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said the fiery crash of the fighter on Monday apparently was caused by “power failure” and was likely unrelated to the previous discovery of cracks in hinges on the wings of more than a dozen of the $57-million aircraft.

“It is important that we gain a complete understanding of what went wrong,” Hunter said in a statement.

Marine Cpl. Travis Easter said officials at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, where the plane was trying to land, had no immediate response to the request for maintenance records.

The Navy announced last month it was grounding 10 of the planes and limiting the flights of 20 others because of the cracks. It was not immediately clear if the plane that crashed in San Diego was under any flight restrictions.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/12/ap_f18_crash_120908/%2e