Navy identifies two crew members killed in small-plane crash during training mission in Alabama
The U.S. Navy has identified two crew members who were killed in an Alabama plane crash Friday during a training mission.
U.S. Navy Lt. Rhiannon Ross, 30, of Wixom, Michigan, and U.S. Coast Guard Ensign Morgan Garrett, 24, from Weddington, N.C., died when their Navy T-6B Texan II turboprop trainer, a tandem-seat small aircraft designed solely for training, crashed at about 5 p.m., public affairs officer Cmdr. Zach Harrell told CNN last week.
Ross was an instructor pilot and Garrett a student aviator, the Navy said in a press release Sunday. They took off from Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Milton, Florida, on a routine training flight, the Navy said, when their small craft crashed in a residential neighborhood in Alabama.
“Their spirit, friendship and devotion to their country will not be forgotten,” the Navy said.
The Navy is working with local authorities to investigate the incident, the military said. No civilians or anyone on the ground were injured.
Foley Fire Chief Joey Darby told the Associated Press on Friday that responders had encountered a “large volume of fire” with a home and several cars engulfed in flames after the crash. Firefighters were able to make “a quick stop on the fire,” the chief told local news outlets, according to AP.
Foley is about 30 miles southeast of Mobile, Alabama by air and 30 miles due west of Pensacola, Florida.
