Escondido, CA — A former Navy pilot was reunited with a plane he ejected from more than 50 years ago at Rancho Guejito in Escondido.
While conducting a familiarization flight in the San Diego skies in 1957, Robert F. Jones, a Navy pilot with then-Attack Squadron (VA) 146, ejected from his aircraft, not knowing where it landed.
“Frankly, it’s very emotional because all pilots love their airplanes,” said Jones.
The FJ-4B Fury was found a few years ago on Rancho Guejito by cowhands after several fires had thinned the brush in the area exposing what was left of the plane.
After discovering the wreckage, Hank Rupp, chief operations officer and general counsel for the ranch, received more information about the plane from a former aviation accident investigator with the Israeli army.
“He said this aircraft is from an aircraft carrier and there is only one [organization] that deals with carriers around here and that is the Navy,” said Rupp.
The ranch contacted Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, which was a Naval Air Station in 1957 at the time of the crash.
“I got a call from the ranch saying they had a plane on the property and wanted to know if we wanted to come and inspect it to see if it belongs to us,” said Lt. Col. Thomas Frederick, executive officer of MCAS Miramar.
The air station brought an investigation team as well as experts from the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, who traced the plane by serial number, lead to the discovery of the pilot that ejected from the aircraft, added Frederick.
Ranch officials tracked down Jones, who flew as a commercial pilot for United Airlines for 31 years after the military, and arranged for him to be reunited with his plane.
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