The PC leadership at the top ranks of the Navy killed Hultgreen. They were told repeatedly she just didn’t have the ability to fly an F-14 off an aircraft carrier and was a danger to herself and others. Had she been a man, she would have been washed out at several stages of flight training, but kept getting recycled through. Anyone standing in the way of that result would have kissed their career goodbye.
No one was surprised when she died in a crash, just didn’t know when it was going to happen.
Hence the shock and surprise here.