AIR FORCE GROUNDING AIRCRAFT FOR TRAINING; DECISION WILL MEAN SCREENING PILOT HOPEFULS AT CIVILIAN SCHOOLS.

Byline: Associated Press 

One of the Air Force's primary training aircraft will be grounded for at least two more years, the service announced in a move that forces the Air Force to screen prospective pilots at civilian aviation schools.

The absence of an Air Force screening program, coupled with an ongoing drain of Air Force pilots to the private sector, means the service is not going to be able to produce enough pilots ``to meet Air Force mission requirements in the future,'' officials at the Air Force's Air Education and Training Command warned in a statement.

In July 1997, Gen. Lloyd Newton, who is in charge of the command, ordered the fleet of 110 T-3A ``Firefly'' training aircraft grounded after a series of unexplained engine failures.

Six people have been killed since 1995 in the planes - three Air Force Academy cadets and three of their teachers.

In a statement issued Thursday, the service said it was holding to the flight suspension and putting all the aircraft into a ``minimal maintenance status,'' while flight testing and modifications to the planes continued.

The engine problem has not been solved, said Lt. Col. Barbara Claypool, a spokeswoman for Newton's command, located at Randolph Air Force Base outside San Antonio. Half the planes will remain at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, and half at Hondo Municipal Airport outside San Antonio, Claypool said.

The Air Force also is looking into adding a crew ejection system, which could take ``a minimum of two years'' to install, even if it is found to be compatible with the present aircraft, the statement said.

``During the interim period of continued suspension of T-3A flight operations, AETC is planning for pilot candidates to attend civilian flight training at locations throughout the country to gain flight experience'' before entering full-fledged Air Force pilot training, the statement said.

Prospective pilots at the Air Force Academy and elsewhere flew the aircraft with an instructor, to see whether they could undergo the rigors of flight training.

Now, such prospective pilots will attend courses approved by the Federal Aviation Administration at various sites, Claypool said. The classes will cost about $4,000 per student, she said.

The T-3A is a two-seat, single-engine, propeller-driven plane. The $302,000 aircraft were manufactured in England by Slingsby Aviation and assembled in the United States using American-built Textron-Lycoming engines.

A T-3A crashed near a golf course northeast of the Air Force Academy on June 25, 1997, killing the cadet and instructor.

Two other T-3A crashes near the academy in 1995 and 1996 each claimed the lives of both an instructor pilot and an academy cadet. The 1996 crash was blamed on engine failure, while the 1995 incident was partly blamed on inadequate training.

In a report published earlier this year, Time magazine said the Air Force had received more than 50 reports of engine failures since the planes were put into service in 1994.

``The T-3's crash record is all the more startling because from 1964 to 1994, cadets flew the trainer's predecessor, the T-41, without a single fatality,'' Time reported.