Witnesses: It Disappeared In The Mist

A Lockheed P2-V-7 crashed Friday in California's San Bernardino National Forest Friday, killing both crew members on board. The aircraft was contracted by the Forest Service, one of two tankers called to the San Bernardino Tanker Base after battling flames along the Arizona-Utah border. The other aircraft landed safely.

The downed P2-V-7 Neptune went down about eight miles from the airport, which was enshrouded in fog at the time. Although there's an 899-acre blaze in the San Bernardino Forest, officials say that's not where the Neptune was headed. Tanker 99, was based in San Bernardino and left the airport in Prescott (AZ) shortly before 10 a.m., said Travis Haines, a spokesman for the Prescott National Forest. The crew of the aircraft still hasn't been identified.

Marvin and Terry Ballard were in the mountains above the layer of fog enshrouding San Bernardino when they spotted the aircraft flying low through the foothills. "My wife mentioned to me, and it was, I guess, half-joking, she said 'Boy, we ought to listen there because as low as he is, we might hear a crash,'" Marvin Ballard said Saturday in a telephone interview with the Riverside Press-Enterprise (CA).

Moments after that remark, the Ballards saw a huge bubble of air distort the fog. Then they saw smoke rising from the area. Then they called emergency responders. The Neptune, which officials said Friday appeared to be flying west, hit a remote hillside at 3,500 feet (MSL) and broke up on impact. Much of the fuselage and wings appeared to have disintegrated. Crews later suppressed a fire sparked by the crash.

The Forest Service and Federal Aviation Administration have received several reports in recent years of P2V-7 aircraft experiencing wing cracks.

"We had this feeling that we were the last to see the airplane and thought about it a lot (Friday) afternoon and even lost a little sleep over it, thinking about it and re-picturing it and wondering had we done everything right in doing our job," Ballard said. He and his wife are volunteers at Keller Peak Lookout in the San Bernardino Forest.

FMI: www.fs.fed.us