Fighter jets on training mission make a pit stop at Bob Hope Airport
Before he moves from California to Florida, Brian O’Toole spent a little time training some colleagues Friday on a flight that passed near his childhood hometown of La Cañada Flintridge — an event that rattled some windows near Bob Hope Airport and caused some chatter on social media.
O’Toole, it turns out, was the lead pilot of a trio of Navy fighter jets from Naval Air Station Lemoore near Fresno that made a stop in Burbank to refuel.
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“Part of it is to get training,” O’Toole said, which allows the pilots to work on navigation skills and approaches to unfamiliar airports. “It was also my last flight [with the unit].”
The Navy lieutenant, who attended Saint Francis High School and the Naval Academy, has been flying fighter jets for more than five years. The training mission of three Boeing F/A-18s under the call sign Jason11 was his last with the members of Strike Fighter Squadron 147, the Argonauts, before he moves to Florida to start flying the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
O’Toole said by phone while driving home from base on Friday that he chose the stopover to refuel in Burbank specifically because it would bring him nearby his hometown. He said he’ll also be driving through town on the way to Florida to spend time with his parents, Martin and Joanna O’Toole.
John Randazzo, a member of a Facebook group for airport plane spotters, posted photos online of the jets as they passed over the airport area and as they sat on the ground. Randazzo had posted a photo in December of a fighter and military cargo plane at the airport.
Lucy Burghdorf, an airport spokeswoman, said the fighter jets infrequently stop off at Bob Hope Airport.
On Twitter, blogger Victor Caballero called the take-off “loud.” Another online commenter on Facebook called it “deafening.”
According to WebTrak, which records flight data and noise levels of take-offs and landings at the Burbank airfield, the jet noise at take-off around noon reached more than 100 decibels, much louder than the typical commercial jet, as the aircraft reached speeds of more than 300 mph and altitudes above 6,000 feet.
Randazzo said he lives near the airport and gets to see the jets “from time to time ... and the amazing sound and power is always very impressive.”
The jets could make the trip from Lemoore “in a straight line” in 20 minutes, O’Toole said, but Friday’s flight was more than a buzz by home.
The trio of jets spent much of the day on a mission that involved a low-level flight over Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in the Mojave Desert before the stop in Burbank and a trip back over the desert for some aerial combat maneuvers on the way back home.
O’Toole said it was an opportunity to give his fellow fighter jocks some tips on dog-fighting “on the way out the door.”
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Chad Garland, chad.garland@latimes.com
Twitter: @chadgarland
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