Air Force Crash Takes 13 Lives and Peace of Mind--on Technicality : Military: Survivors can’t collect extra insurance benefits because policies did not take effect until 162 minutes after deaths. Dispute involves which time measurement to use--Greenwich Mean Time or local time?

SPOKANE, Wash. — In a single instant, Capt. Banks E. Wilkinson flew to his death--and into a tragic technicality.

It happened when Wilkinson’s U.S. Air Force transport and another collided in the clear sky 26,000 feet over Montana. The horrified crew of a nearby KC-135 tanker plane watched as both planes fell to the ground in flames; Wilkinson and the 12 others on the two planes perished.

The tanker crew recorded the position of the crash in their log and noted the time: 0318 hours Greenwich Mean Time, Dec. 1.

Then, the technicality.

In the weeks before the crash, Wilkinson and eight of the other crewmen had signed up for $100,000 in life insurance coverage to supplement $100,000 policies already in hand. The supplemental policies were to take effect Dec. 1.

But when their relatives tried to claim the extra money, they found the government’s military insurer had a different version of the tragedy.

It contends the collision happened at 9:18 p.m., Mountain Standard Time, Nov. 30--2 hours and 42 minutes before the policies were to go into effect.

No insurance--and no payoff.

“I think it’s unjust. We’re talking 2 1/2 hours difference. I think that’s not right,” said Lee Bissett, father of Staff Sgt. Monte L. Bissett. “My son was asked before he went on this mission if he wanted the additional insurance. He indicated he wanted it. I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t be getting it.”

The denial of benefits was made under the military’s Uniform Time Act, which uses local time zones to determine when policies take effect, said Ken McKinnon, a spokesman for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington.

“We would like everyone to understand that this is a difficult situation and we would very much like to do the right thing,” McKinnon said. But “the law requires those dates at this point.”

“The use of local time for the military creates a very, very, inequitable situation,” said Karen Wilkinson of Spanaway, Wash., widow of Banks Wilkinson. Her husband informed her of the extra coverage just a week before his death.

Congress approved the supplemental insurance benefits Oct. 1 and they were to become effective Dec. 1. During that two-month period, military personnel were allowed to sign up for the extra benefits. Premiums of $8 a month would be taken out of their pay for the supplemental plan, starting in December.

President Clinton has said he supports congressional efforts to ensure that the families receive full benefits. The Senate is considering legislation that would make an exception for these survivors, while the House this month approved a bill that would establish a uniform time for such matters based on the International Date Line, retroactive to the Montana crash.

Even Veterans Affairs Secretary Jessie Brown, whose department operates Servicemen’s Group Life Insurance, has come out in support of legislation changing the effective date of the policies.

But in the meantime, the flyers’ families have half of the death benefits they expected--all because of 162 disputed minutes.

Some, like Elizabeth Jenkins, widow of Air Force Capt. Jimmy Lee Jenkins, say the money is not the point: “This is really not about the money; this is a question of the inequities of the law.”

But the money does matter: While survivors wait to see what they will get, “so many things get put on hold,” said Elizabeth Jenkins of West Point, Ga. She has not decided whether she will return to college, or get another job.

The Rev. Wilbert T. Brown said the extra benefits would help him care for the two children, both under 2 years old, left by his son, Senior Airman Wilbert T. Brown III.

“I intend on doing for them whatever I can,” said Brown of Galveston, Tex. “I intend to put some money aside so they would have the opportunity to have a decent education.”

Brown said that he would also use the money to “improve the living situation” of the children by buying them clothes and otherwise helping them prepare for school.

Lori Parent, of Paradise, Calif., widow of Capt. Edward D. Parent, went back to work as a respiratory therapist a month after the accident, but found it hard working with trauma patients her husband’s age.

Since moving from Washington state, she works in a medical center where the type of injuries aren’t as traumatic.

“I had to go back to work,” she said. “That money doesn’t go very far.”

Worse, though, was the sense that her husband’s life was not appreciated.

“It’s so disrespectful to Ed’s memory to deny him this,” she said.