Navy Crewman William McIlvaine Killed in Jet Crash

Three Navy crew members, including one from El Paso, were killed in a plane crash during a training flight Monday morning in Eastern Washington.

The aircrew members were identified by the Navy as Lt. j.g. Valerie Delaney, 26, from Ellicott City, Md.; Lt. j.g. William McIlvaine, 24, from El Paso; and Lt. Cmdr. Alan Patterson, 34, from Tullahoma, Tenn.

Delaney was a naval aviator and McIIvaine and Patterson were naval flight officers.

The twin-engine EA-6B Prowler was engaged in low-level training exercises when it crashed. It went down in a farm field about 50 miles west of Spokane. The plane apparently disintegrated on impact.

The Prowler belongs to the Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ-129), also known as the Vikings, at Whidbey air station. It is the Navy squadron charged with training all Navy and Marine Corps aviators assigned to fly Prowlers.

McIlvaine is the son of Dr. William B. McIlvaine Jr., a pediatric anesthesiologist at El Paso Children’s Hospital and a professor at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine.

The cause of the accident is under investigation.