Second Bonner County airman lost
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| Staff sergeant Afton Ponce |
| Photo courtesy KREM |
The Air Force has identified the four airmen killed in Tuesday’s Pave Hawk crash near RAF Lakenheath, England, and one, KREM 2 News, Spokane, reports, attended high school in Priest River.
Captain Christopher S. Stover, Captain Sean M. Ruane, Technical Sergeant Dale E. Mathews and Staff Sergeant Afton M. Ponce died when their HH-60G crashed in a wildlife preserve near the town of Norfolk, on the eastern coast of England.
Ponce, KREM reported, attended Priest River Lamanna High School until 2003.
On December 27, Air Force Captain David Lyon, Sandpoint, was killed while on combat operations near Kabul, Afghanistan.
The Pave Hawk, assigned to the 56th Rescue Squadron, was flying a low-level training mission when it went down at the Norfolk Wildlife Trust Cley Marshes near the town of Cley Next The Sea.
The crew consisted of a pilot, co-pilot and two special mission aviators who are qualified as both gunners and flight engineers, the 48th Fighter Wing said in a release Wednesday. Stover and Ruane were the pilots, and Mathews and Ponce were the special mission aviators.
“We continue to think of the loved ones who are experiencing such a tragic, sudden loss,” Colonel Kyle Robinson, 48th Fighter Wing commander, said in a statement. “The Liberty Wing feels as though it has lost members of its family, and we stand by to support one another and these airmen’s families during this difficult time.”
Residents near the crash site said the Pave Hawk sounded unusual before the crash, according to the Associated Press. The area was also experiencing poor weather, with wind gusts of about 36 mph.
To read the full KREM article, click here. For the Air Force Times report, click here.