United Press International June 17, 1989, Saturday, BC cycle
SECTION: Domestic News LENGTH: 788 words
HEADLINE: Astronaut killed in plane crash
DATELINE: EARLE, Ark.
BODY: Astronaut S. David Griggs, who was scheduled to fly aboard the shuttle Atlantis in November, was killed Saturday when he crashed while performing aerobatics in a vintage World War II plane, officials said. Griggs, 49, was alone in the plane, which crashed at 9:10 a.m. near a private air strip just south of Earle, a small community about 20 miles west of West Memphis, Ark., near the Tennessee border. Jeff Carr, a NASA spokesman at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said Griggs was flying a North American AT-6, ''a vintage trainer airplane,'' and that he apparently was performing aerobatics at the time of the accident. Carr did not elaborate. The veteran pilot had more than 9,000 hours of flying time, officials said. Survivors include his wife, Karen, and two children, Alison Marie, 17, and Carre Anne, 15. Griggs, who had worked for NASA as a research pilot since 1970, first flew in space aboard the shuttle Discovery, which took off April 12, 1985. Griggs and astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman launched a $65 million communications satellite for Telesat Canada, a job he took very seriously. ''It's not routine at all,'' he said before launch. ''You've got too valuable a cargo to ever consider that as routine even though it has been done several times before. It's an extremely valuable cargo and you want to do it right.'' Later, he and Hoffman performed an unscheduled spacewalk in an unsuccessful bid to repair a second satellite. Griggs had been assigned to serve as co-pilot of Discovery for his second flight, a classified military mission scheduled for launch Nov. 19. His crewmates for that flight were commander Frederick Gregory, Kathryn Thornton, Story Musgrave and Manley Sonny Carter. ''I just like the solitude of being able to fly around in a machine and make the machine do the things that you want it to do,'' Griggs said in an interview before his first shuttle flight. ''It's all just a very enjoyable experience.'' Carr said it was too soon to say what impact the accident might have on the November mission. ''Right now, we don't expect that the flight date is going to be affected,'' he said. ''Any possible impacts are currently being assessed. We'll be naming a pilot in the near future.'' Griggs would have been the first shuttle astronaut in history to serve as both a non-piloting crew member, or ''mission specialist,'' and a pilot. At the time of the accident, Griggs was flying out of the McNeely Air Service landing strip in Earle. Lamar Coleman, chief deputy for the Crittendon County Sheriff's Department, said the crash site was near Arkansas Highway 149. ''It's just a little old landing strip out there,'' Coleman said. ''I know he (Griggs) had done some stunt flying for McNeely. Just last month we had an air show in West Memphis and he flew in that. He flew an old World War II P-51 fighter plane. ''We don't know yet what happened. Whether he was landing or taking off.'' The Federal Aviation Administration flew investigators to the site to try to determine the cause of the accident. Griggs graduated from Lincoln High School in Portland, Ore., in 1957 and received a bachelor of science degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1962. In 1970, he received a master of science in administration from George Washington University. Immediately after graduating from Anapolis, Griggs entered pilot training and received his Navy wings in 1964. During one Mediterranean cruise and two combat cruises in Vietnam, Griggs was awarded the Navy Distinguished Flying Cross, the Meritorious Service Medal, 15 Air Medals, three Navy Commendation Medals and numerous other awards. In 1967, he entered the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School and, upon graduation, was assigned to the Flying Qualities and Performance Branch where he flew various test projects on fighter and attack-type aircraft. In 1970, he resigned his Naval commission and affiliated with the Naval Air Reserve, in which he held the rank of Rear Admiral, and earned his graduate degree. Griggs had flown over 45 different types of aircraft including single and multi-engine prop, turbo prop and jet aircraft, helicopters, gliders, hot air balloons and the space shuttle. He made over 300 carrier landings and held an airline transport pilot license and was a certified flight instructor. Griggs joined NASA in 1970 at the Johnson Space Center in Houston as a research pilot, where he worked on various flight test and research projects. In 1974, he became the project pilot for the shuttle trainer aircraft and participated in the design, development and testing of those aircraft. In August 1979 he completed a one-year-long training period and became eligible for shuttle flight assignment.
airplane crash conspiracy page