Navy pilot killed in Friday's Air Force training exercise on WSMR

HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE – A U.S. Navy pilot was killed after the A-29 aircraft crashed while on a mission over the Red Rio Bombing Range on White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) Friday morning, according to a Naval Air Force Reserve press release.

Lt. Christopher Carey Short, of Canandaigua, New York died while piloting the aircraft during a training flight that was part of the Air Force’s Light Attack Experiment around 11:30 a.m. Friday, according to the release.

“There’s no way to describe the shock of this loss and the sadness we feel for this family,” Holloman Air Force Base 49th Wing Commander Col. Houston Cantwell stated in the release. “He did pioneering work in aviation that will help shape American air power for years to come We’re thankful to have known him and grateful for his devotion to duty.”

Short, 32, loved his family and loved serving his country.

“He was just a really good man. He was a man of integrity and a man of faith," Lisa Short, Christopher’s mother, told New York’s WHAM-TV (Channel 13). "He challenged his classmates to live for something greater than themselves and he lived for something greater than himself.’’

More:Holloman continues their investigation of crash on WSMR

Short was stationed in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Becoming a jet pilot was a dream Short fostered since he was very young, his mom said. He was commissioned in 2008 upon graduation from college.

He was due back in Virginia Beach at the end of July to be reunited with his wife, Audra. The couple was married in October.

"His wife, Audra, I think was the light of his life,” said Megan Brown, Short's sister.

Holloman Air Force Base (HAFB) officials continue their investigation of Friday’s A-29 Super Tucano that crashed over the Red Rio Bombing Range on WSMR, according to a HAFB press release. 

One Air Force aircrew member was airlifted to an area hospital for treatment of the crew member’s minor injuries then released from the hospital, the release states.

The Super Tucano crashed during a training flight that’s part of the Air Force’s Light Attack Experiment.

According to the release, no cause of the accident has been determined at this time because the crash is currently under investigation.

More:Holloman officials: Aircraft crashes on White Sands Missile Range

The Red Rio Bombing Range is an active Air Force facility that encompasses about 196,000 acres on WSMR, about 65 miles north of Holloman Air Force Base.

Fire and police units from the White Sands Missile Range Directorate of Emergency Services initially responded to the crash, the release states.

The Red Rio Bombing Range is part of WSMR’s open air test range that’s a U.S. Army installation and the Department of Defense’s largest.

The aircraft crash canceled a planned U.S. Air Force’s Light Attack Experiment exercise in Alamogordo that was to begin Friday afternoon. The Air Force planned to conduct two exercises that were scheduled for between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. then a second flight exercise was scheduled for between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Both exercises were canceled due to the crash on WSMR’s Red Rio Bombing Range.

More:Alamogordo assists Holloman with military exercise

Alamogordo Police Department was supposed to assist Holloman Air Force Base personnel with the exercise.

The exercise was part of the ground portion of the Light Attack Experiment that kicked off the Air Force’s second phase of testing at Holloman in May after the first phase was conducted in 2017.

The experiment was looking at the capabilities of propeller-driven Sierra Nevada/Embraer A-29 Super Tucano and the Textron Aviation AT-6B Wolverine aircrafts over a three-month period.

The Alamogordo exercise was to test the aircrafts’ systems with no weapons on board or any weapons were to be deployed during the exercise.

The Air Force’s exercise was to see if adding a low-cost attack aircraft to the Air Force’s inventory could help improve their readiness by decreasing demand on high-performance aircraft in certain combat situations.

Rochester, New York’s Democrat and Chromicle Staff Writer Leo Roth contributed to this story.