By all accounts I’ve read, Kara Hultgreen had no business being in the cockpit of that F-14 on the day she lost her life. As a number of pilots and Navy vets have pointed out over the years, any man with her track record in training would have been washed out of the program.
It bums me to think this loss was the result of affirmative action.
As a consequence of the incident, two separate investigations were conducted.
“The Judge Advocate General (JAG) cited a technical malfunction as the root cause of the crash whereas the Navy Mishap Investigation Report (MIR) came to the conclusion that it was a pilot error to induce the fatal left engine stall.”
Until the latter was leaked, the JAG version was Navy’s official position on the mishap.
1. There are always two investigations for every mishap. A JAG to find any legal culpability, and a Safety Investigation. The two are done independently. While the JAG is limited in scope, the safety investigation is not. One critical part of the safety investigation is that the information in that investigation is "privileged." Only those that would benefit from the knowledge are allowed to see the results. That doesn't include releasing it to the press.
2. The main causal factor for the crash was the engine stall. Now we can argue forever about whether that was the pilot's fault, or the Navy's fault for continuing to fly the F-14A with a crappy engine. Jerking the throttles around on the Tomcat wasn't what you wanted to do. Personally, I only had three stalls in the four years I flew the F-14A and all of them turned out to be engines that had to be replaced. I treated those engines very gingerly.
3. I don't think LT Hultgreen should have been flying those planes, either. The key difference is that the people that should have stopped it didn't, and the dirt that came out after her death came from some of the same people that should have put a stop to it. The guy that crashed his airplane in Nashville and killed people on the ground was from the same squadron and he was worse. Same problem, people didn't put a stop to a guy that needed to be grounded. It is a tough job, but sometimes you have to do tough things. I had to fail a good friend on an annual check ride that ultimately led to the end of his flying career. I didn't want to do it, but he simply wasn't good enough. We aren't friends anymore, but his wife still has a husband and his kid still has a dad.
4. The F-14 had command eject. With qualified crew in the front and back we always flew in command eject, meaning if either of us pulled the handle we both went. The RIO always goes first. When Matt pulled the ejection handle, he was pulling it for both of them, unfortunately the airplane had gotten so slow that it got to a region of control reversibility and departed controlled flight. Matt's "successful" ejection included some skipping across the waves, Kara was found still in her seat. That line of service doesn't leave much room for error. Matt got lucky, Kara didn't. If somebody ever insinuated that the RIO saved himself and left her, in my presence, I would have troubles controlling my rage.