Navy identifies sailor hit by plane, killed on Eisenhower

NORFOLK

Petty Officer 2nd Class Robert Lemar Robinson died Saturday on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower after being struck by a plane during flight operations.

Navy officials released Robinson's name Monday but offered no details of the incident, which is under investigation.

Lt. Courtney Hillson, a spokeswoman for the Navy's 2nd Fleet, said Robinson was struck at 8:16 p.m. and was pronounced dead 16 minutes later. Robinson was 31. He is survived by his mother and three children, Hillson said.

A native of Detroit, Robinson joined the Navy in 1998 and was assigned to the Eisenhower in January. As an aviation boatswain's mate in the carrier's air department, he was responsible for handling and moving aircraft on the flight deck.

The Ike has been at sea since Sept. 16, conducting routine training operations. On Saturday, it was off the coast of North Carolina.

Flight operations ceased for a time after the incident, but planes resumed flying onto and off the carrier late Sunday morning, Hillson said. The carrier remains at sea and will hold a memorial service for Robinson on Wednesday.

The Navy often refers to a carrier's flight deck as one of the most dangerous places in the world. Catapults on the 4.5-acre steel deck can launch as many as four planes a minute, while arresting wires simultaneously recover incoming aircraft.

In July, Petty Officer 3rd Class Daniel R. Verbeke, an aviation boatswain's mate, died from injuries he sustained on the deck of the carrier Theodore Roosevelt in 2005.

Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com