Posted on 02/07/2022 10:55:27 AM PST by BenLurkin
When Lt. Kara Hultgreen died while trying to land on the USS Abraham Lincoln, the event touched off a national debate about women in combat roles and the military pushing women who weren’t ready into active service. Except Hultgreen was more than qualified to be a naval aviator – she was just a victim of a well-known deficiency in the F-14’s Pratt & Whitney engine.
On Oct. 25, 1994, she was attempting to land her F-14 aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. She overshot the landing area’s centerline and attempted to correct the mistake. Her correction disrupted the airflow into her Tomcat’s left engine, which caused it to fail. This was a known deficiency in that particular engine.
By the time she died, Lt. Hultgreen had more than 1,240 hours of flying time in the F-14 Tomcat and had landed on a carrier some 58 times, 17 times at night. She was ranked first in defending the fleet from simulated attacks by enemy aircraft and in air refueling, and second in tactics to evade enemy aircraft and in combined familiarization with tactics and aircraft.
Her colleagues and fellow pilots praised her performance as a naval aviator and reminded people that 10 F-14 pilots were killed in accidents between the years of 1992 and 1994.
(Excerpt) Read more at wearethemighty.com ...
“She was ranked first in defending the fleet from simulated attacks by enemy aircraft and in air refueling, and second in tactics to evade enemy aircraft and in combined familiarization with tactics and aircraft.”
LOL... Yeah, we all saw her skill level.
“She overshot the landing area’s centerline and attempted to correct the mistake. Her correction disrupted the airflow into her Tomcat’s left engine, which caused it to fail. “
She was pushed through training like women are in Ranger school today, and had no business there.
Had 58 successful carrier landings. Guess her skill level was good enough. Military training is dangerous. People die doing it.
Another ridiculous and unnecessary death caused by too much bowing to political-correctness.
she was just a victim of a well-known deficiency in the F-14’s Pratt & Whitney engine.
If it's such a well-known deficiency, shouldn't such a good pilot have avoided the problem? They report this like it wasn't a screw-up, but I think it was a screw-up. And let's be clear: everybody screws up. But if it's a woman, then it's the engine's fault.
Wikipedia:
Her call signs were “Hulk” or “She-Hulk”, for her ability to bench press 200 pounds (91 kg), her 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) frame,[1] and a play on her surname. Following a television appearance in which she wore noticeable makeup, she received the additional call sign of “Revlon”.[4]
That can't be right. Both those pilots were guys. Everyone knows only women crash airplanes.
200 lbs.. I pressed 380, my bro pressed 400 in high school. The men’s record is actually 700 for high school.
Ten dead pilots in two years should tell you something.
Yup. She was killed by her instructors who went easy on her because the word was out that they couldn't fail women or hold them to as high a standard. One complaint of sexism and their careers were over.
If the plane’s deficiency was “well-known” why didn’t she know about it as a professional Naval aviator?
Lack of training hours and poor maintenance have become endemic. I recall under Clintoon that too many AF pilots were not rated highly enough because of training, so Clintoon's admin just lowered the number of hours needed.
Presto! 100% readiness. Just imagine how much worse it is now.
https://www.cmrlink.org/data/sites/85/CMRDocuments/CMRRPT09-0695.pdf
Her training record was filled with downs and catastrophic errors that would have washed out anyone else. Blown out both main gear from ignored training, all kinds of head mistakes that would have got her killed had she been dropping actual bombs, had HUD set for landing while bombing, screwed up emergency procedures, and during hot fueling when she was supposed to shut down the engine on that side, she left it running endangering the ground crew..
Took 37 passes to carrier qual as opposed to the normal 20.
... those are just the highlights.
It’s a miracle she only killed herself. In a sense, Borda, Cheney and the Navy murdered her.
Yes, if this is the same person I am thinking of, yes she was pushed through and her deficiencies were overlooked because the brass wanted the PR of first woman pilot.
They set her up to fail.
If I am remembering incorrectly please someone correct me, but if this is the same woman the investigation afterward excoriated the command structure for pushing her through when she was not ready.
Read her training record entries in post 16. She wasn’t good enough. She would have been bounced out if she would have been a man.
“Had 58 successful carrier landings. Guess her skill level was good enough. Military training is dangerous. People die doing it.”
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Yep. The first death of a graduate from my Infantry OCS class happened in advanced helicopter training at Fort Rucker.
Even the investigation got political. I read once that they put other pilots in simulators in her situation and most also crashed. But then the pilots said they wouldn’t have gotten into that situation and when they started the simulation a few seconds earlier most of the pilots survived.
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