N321AX Hawker HUNTER Mk.58 Crashes near NAWS Pt. Mugu.

[Doug Robertson]

Yesterday, Friday, 18 May 2012 N321AX was approaching NAWS Point Mugu about 1215 hours with another contractor-operated aggressor jet aircraft when an eyewitness working in a nearby celery field saw it catch fire in mid-air and start breaking apart. It crashed in a field on the extensive Broome Ranch about 1.5 miles outside NAWS Pt. Mugu in Southern California.

N321AX was operated by Virginia-based ATAC, Airborne Tactical Advantage Co., a defense contractor operating aggressor aircraft on contract with Naval Base Ventura County, which includes NAWS Point Mugu. The civilian pilot was killed. No one else was injured. The other aircraft, also an ATAC Hawker landed safely at NAWS Point Mugu NTD. N321AX was written off (damaged beyond repair).

N321AX struck the farm field and made a small crater; with the debris field the size of a football field, according to the local newspaper, the Ventura County STAR. The pilot was a 57 year old ex-USN Captain who lived in nearby Camarillo.

Please see my photos on this site of N321AX. I worked at Point Mugu for 29 years, 13 of which were in Flight Test Division.

Coincidentally, this crashed occurred exactly one year to the day of the crash and subsequent destruction by fire of a civilian contractor tanker aircraft fully fueled on takeoff from Pt. Mugu's 11,100 foot duty runway. That Boeing converted-tanker/refueler aircraft was allowed to burn out near the runway because the extensive fuel fire made it impossible to extinguish safely. I have an entry on this Forum about that crash, also which see.