Piece of Navy jet that crashed off Florida washes up in Ireland

Piece of Navy jet that crashed off Florida washes up in Ireland

NORFOLK, Va. - A tail section from a U-S Navy fighter jet that crashed three and a half years ago off Key West, Florida, has turned up 49-hundred miles away on a beach in Ireland.

A retired commercial airline captain discovered the tail piece Friday. The Navy confirmed today that markings on the section, including squadron insignia and a serial number, pointed to the

downed F-14 Tomcat.

Currents from the Gulf of Mexico near the tip of Florida might have floated the nearly ten-foot-long triangular piece of vertical stabilizer -- one of two on the plane -- to the beach in West Cork on Ireland's southern shore.

The F-14 was based in Virginia. It crashed near Key West in the Gulf of Mexico on October third, 2002, during a training mission.

Both crew members ejected safely.

-- The Associated Press

Copyright ? 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

I have flown over the atlantic many times, and its a BIG ocean. To think that something that small floted for 3 1/2 years makes you think what else is drifting out there. The temps here in the UK today are in the lower 70s thanks to the gulf stream. What a powerfull current. What a story.