RIP to the pilot
Carrier Landing is notoriously dangerous, many pilot died during training or actual mission, we lost our first female fighter pilot with the same kind of incident on a F-14A
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/27/us/female-fighter-pilot-killed-in-crash-off-california.html
Female Fighter Pilot Killed in Crash Off California
By ERIC SCHMITT,
Published: October 27, 1994
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WASHINGTON, Oct. 26— One of the Navy's first female combat pilots was killed in a training accident off Southern California on Tuesday, the Navy said today.
The pilot, Lieut. Kara S. Hultgreen, 29, of San Antonio, crashed into the sea as she was preparing to land her F-14 Tomcat on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. The F-14's radar-intercept officer, Lieut. Matthew P. Klemish, ejected and was rescued by Navy helicopters. Her body has not been recovered.
Navy officials said the cause of the accident, which occurred at 3 P.M. in fair weather, was under investigation. It was unclear why Lieutenant Hultgreen was not ejected. Under operating procedures, F-14 pilots and their back seat radar-intercept officers are ejected nearly simultaneously if either aviator bails out.
Lieutenant Hultgreen, who completed F-14 pilot training in July, was part of the first class of women allowed to fly Navy fighter jets in combat missions.
In April 1993, Defense Secretary Les Aspin lifted the last restrictions on female pilots flying combat missions and serving aboard warships. Until then, female aviators in the Army, Air Force and Navy were limited to training and other noncombat jobs.
Aircraft carriers remained one of the last all-male bastions in the armed forces. When 500 women were assigned to the 5,000-member crew of the aircraft carrier Eisenhower in Norfolk, Va., earlier this year, some old salts predicted morale problems.
But male and female officers and crew members on the Eisenhower praised the experiment, and the Abraham Lincoln became the first warship based on the West Coast to integrate women into the ship's crew and the carrier air wing. The Abraham Lincoln is scheduled to leave for a six-month tour in the western Pacific and Asia next spring.
Lieutenant Hultgreen was one of two women among the 14 pilots in Fighter Squadron 213, an F-14 unit based at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego.
Before being tapped to fly the F-14, the fighter plane that Tom Cruise made famous in the movie "Top Gun," Lieutenant Hultgreen flew EA-6A jets based at Key West Naval Air Station in Florida that help to train Navy ship crews to detect enemy aircraft or missiles.
But Lieutenant Hultgreen, who graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in aerospace engineering, had even loftier goals.
"I want to be an astronaut," she told The Miami Herald last year. "Most of the astronauts are Navy jet test pilots first. If you're not given the same opportunities, you can't compete on the same level."
The national spotlight fell briefly on Lieutenant Hultgreen last year when NBC News broadcast a segment on her, showing her making an emergency landing in an A-6 attack plane with a broken landing gear.
Lieutenant Hultgreen is the first Navy female pilot killed since the combat aircraft ban was rescinded, but she was at least the sixth woman to die in a training accident since the Navy first permitted female aviators in 1974.
Capt. Rosemary Mariner, a 21-year Navy pilot and the Navy's first female squadron commander, said in a telephone interview today, "Kara had a fighter pilot's personality and was doing exactly what she wanted to do."
Female Fighter Pilot Killed in Crash Off California
By ERIC SCHMITT,
Published: October 27, 1994
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WASHINGTON, Oct. 26— One of the Navy's first female combat pilots was killed in a training accident off Southern California on Tuesday, the Navy said today.
The pilot, Lieut. Kara S. Hultgreen, 29, of San Antonio, crashed into the sea as she was preparing to land her F-14 Tomcat on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. The F-14's radar-intercept officer, Lieut. Matthew P. Klemish, ejected and was rescued by Navy helicopters. Her body has not been recovered.
Navy officials said the cause of the accident, which occurred at 3 P.M. in fair weather, was under investigation. It was unclear why Lieutenant Hultgreen was not ejected. Under operating procedures, F-14 pilots and their back seat radar-intercept officers are ejected nearly simultaneously if either aviator bails out.
Lieutenant Hultgreen, who completed F-14 pilot training in July, was part of the first class of women allowed to fly Navy fighter jets in combat missions.
In April 1993, Defense Secretary Les Aspin lifted the last restrictions on female pilots flying combat missions and serving aboard warships. Until then, female aviators in the Army, Air Force and Navy were limited to training and other noncombat jobs.
Aircraft carriers remained one of the last all-male bastions in the armed forces. When 500 women were assigned to the 5,000-member crew of the aircraft carrier Eisenhower in Norfolk, Va., earlier this year, some old salts predicted morale problems.
But male and female officers and crew members on the Eisenhower praised the experiment, and the Abraham Lincoln became the first warship based on the West Coast to integrate women into the ship's crew and the carrier air wing. The Abraham Lincoln is scheduled to leave for a six-month tour in the western Pacific and Asia next spring.
Lieutenant Hultgreen was one of two women among the 14 pilots in Fighter Squadron 213, an F-14 unit based at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego.
Before being tapped to fly the F-14, the fighter plane that Tom Cruise made famous in the movie "Top Gun," Lieutenant Hultgreen flew EA-6A jets based at Key West Naval Air Station in Florida that help to train Navy ship crews to detect enemy aircraft or missiles.
But Lieutenant Hultgreen, who graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in aerospace engineering, had even loftier goals.
"I want to be an astronaut," she told The Miami Herald last year. "Most of the astronauts are Navy jet test pilots first. If you're not given the same opportunities, you can't compete on the same level."
The national spotlight fell briefly on Lieutenant Hultgreen last year when NBC News broadcast a segment on her, showing her making an emergency landing in an A-6 attack plane with a broken landing gear.
Lieutenant Hultgreen is the first Navy female pilot killed since the combat aircraft ban was rescinded, but she was at least the sixth woman to die in a training accident since the Navy first permitted female aviators in 1974.
Capt. Rosemary Mariner, a 21-year Navy pilot and the Navy's first female squadron commander, said in a telephone interview today, "Kara had a fighter pilot's personality and was doing exactly what she wanted to do."
