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The first combat qualified female naval aviator died in a crazy accident
WeAreTheMighty.com ^ | August 30, 2021 | Blake Stilwell

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 ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: aerospace; hultgreen; navair
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To: DiogenesLamp

“This doesn’t tell the whole story.”

Well...okay.


81 posted on 02/07/2022 2:29:58 PM PST by suthener ( )
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To: Fury
The comments made by one pilot were made in 2019. I doubt he was under duress. He was already retired from the military.

That lends it some credibility, but does not necessarily make it convincing. The modern military is very "woke", and some people, like General Milley, pretty much show they've been brainwashed and are irrational.

Vindman also comes to mind. We've got a lot of kooks in the service now.

Source, please.

That was 28 years ago, and you expect me to find that source again? It might have been the American Spectator, but I was reading a lot of other resources at that time too. I had a subscription to National Review, so it might be in there, but i'm thinking it was the American Spectator because it always was a little edgier.

Might have been other publications. I don't remember for sure, but I certainly remember those details.

82 posted on 02/07/2022 2:32:21 PM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: jagusafr

Watch the video on post 40.

A couple of facts.

She was on a watch list due to poor grading of her carrier landings. ALL carrier landings are graded. Her’s were considered poor enough to get her on the watch list.

There was an established procedure for engine stalls all F-14 pilots were required to memorize. She did not follow that procedure.

It was demonstrated multiple times in simulator recreations of the event that if the procedure had been followed, she would have recovered to a stable flight.

Bottom line is she was on the low end of acceptable piloting skills for an F-14 pilot, or bellow acceptable and was allowed to stay for political consideration, and she didn’t follow procedure.

It was entirely her fault that she crached. But those who pusher her into a role she shouldn’t have been in bear a big part of the responsibility as well.


83 posted on 02/07/2022 2:33:27 PM PST by Jotmo (Whoever said, "The pen is mightier than the sword." has clearly never been stabbed to death.)
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To: DoodleDawg

Was the accident rate among Navy pilots better in the years before 1996 or after 1996?

That is relevant how to what I wrote? If you have a persuasive point related to what I said, make it.


84 posted on 02/07/2022 2:33:51 PM PST by TalBlack (We have a Christian duty and a patriotic duty. God help us.)
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To: Fury
Source, please.

Here you go, and you aren't going to like it.

https://www.unz.com/print/AmSpectator-1995jun-00040/

What I said was on the third page of the article, but I advise you to read the entire thing.

You should give me an "Attaboy!" for finding this.

85 posted on 02/07/2022 2:35:09 PM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: suthener
https://www.unz.com/print/AmSpectator-1995jun-00040/

Perhaps you would like to read this to get more, and likely more accurate, information.

86 posted on 02/07/2022 2:38:18 PM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: Fury
This is where media fails. It starts with the real info that she had 1,240 hours flying time, then some ignorant reporter assumes it is all in the F-14, and then the falsehood gets repeated. She had just switched to the F-14 and just finished training. It doesn't even make sense it would be 1,240. QUESTION EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS STORY - it is a tower of lies and coverups.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/10/27/female-combat-pilot-killed-in-jet-crash/c5ddc0dc-2f73-4d47-8c92-1f9381f76a19/

The Navy said Hultgreen had logged 217 hours in the front, or pilot, seat of the F-14 Tomcat.

87 posted on 02/07/2022 2:39:30 PM PST by Wayne07
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To: DiogenesLamp

“she should have gone full power with the remaining engine in an effort to recover.”

That’s actually not the case. That is likely what she did, but that only makes the situation worse.

I encourage you to watch the video at the link in post 40.


88 posted on 02/07/2022 2:40:43 PM PST by Jotmo (Whoever said, "The pen is mightier than the sword." has clearly never been stabbed to death.)
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To: Fury
"The treatment she received after her death has always stayed with me as one of the greatest injustices witnessed during my naval career. Our XO replicated the mishap 100 times in the simulator and crashed 97 of them. "

This was part of the cover-up by the Navy. She panicked and violated the procedure during landing. The Navy forced the pilots to replicate her mistakes in the Sim, forcing them to fail.

As the controversy continued, Adm. Jeremy Boorda, Chief of Naval Operations, and several other officials continued to focus on engine failure as the primary cause of the accident, asserting that 8 of 9 F-14 pilots were unable to safely fly the plane out of a replicated situation in a simulator. But on April 9, 1995 Robert Caldwell of the San Diego Union-Tribune challenged that assertion, and suggested that the tests had been manipulated to bolster a false conclusion.

Citing three independent and confidential sources, Caldwell reported that the Navy had rigged the simulations by forbidding the use of crucial BOLDFACE emergency instructions, which aviators must memorize and use instantly in order to fly-away safely on one engine. Forbidding use of the BOLDFACE instructions in the simulator virtually guaranteed that "crashes" would occur.

https://www.cmrlink.org/data/sites/85/CMRDocuments/CMRRPT09-0695.pdf

89 posted on 02/07/2022 2:50:28 PM PST by Wayne07
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To: Jotmo
That’s actually not the case. That is likely what she did, but that only makes the situation worse.

That is my recollection regarding what "experts" said at the time. I think the real answer is to not shadow the airstream into your engine inlet.

As for watching videos, i'm on an old computer and youtube has made it nearly impossible to watch videos on this machine. It used to work fine, but youtube "upgraded" their service so that it doesn't work anymore on this old machine and old browser.

90 posted on 02/07/2022 2:51:50 PM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: DesertRhino
Any relation to Lt. Gorman?
91 posted on 02/07/2022 2:58:42 PM PST by shotgun
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To: DesertRhino

Instead of ‘negging’ this Naval Aviator, read this part of the article:

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.

The engine had a KNOWN PROBLEM.

Skill and luck are no match for known failures.


92 posted on 02/07/2022 3:00:36 PM PST by ro_dreaming (Joe Biden is the dementia riddled, no-filter grifter he's always been - just now, we get to see it.)
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To: DesertRhino

Unless that man was John McStain...


93 posted on 02/07/2022 3:02:25 PM PST by shotgun
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To: ro_dreaming
The engine had a KNOWN PROBLEM.

That is a lie. There was nothing wrong with the engine. She simply flamed it out by disrupting it's airflow into the engine inlet because she moved the control surfaces in such a way as to cause the front fuselage to block the airstream going into the engine air intake.

This is a known problem on all navy jets and has nothing to do with any specific engine. The aircraft has to fly straight into the air stream. If you get it cocked slightly sideways, the nose of the aircraft blocks the air flow into the engine causing a "compressor stall" and a flameout.

You can recover from this at higher speeds and higher altitudes, but you often cannot recover from this at low speeds and low altitudes.

94 posted on 02/07/2022 3:07:09 PM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: DiogenesLamp
Here you go, and you aren't going to like it.

Not at all. It's not a matter of liking or disliking. Facts are facts.

Thanks and will read!

95 posted on 02/07/2022 3:08:05 PM PST by Fury
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To: Fury
Not at all. It's not a matter of liking or disliking. Facts are facts.

Very mature attitude. Much respect.

96 posted on 02/07/2022 3:12:29 PM PST by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: ro_dreaming

“The engine had a KNOWN PROBLEM.”

First, it was not the engine with the problem. It’s an issue inherent to twin engine aircraft where the intakes are on the side. The F-14 was more susceptible to this problem than most other aircraft at the time.

So, yes, it was a known problem. Which is exactly why there was an established procedure for recovery that all F-14 pilots were required to memorize. That procedure did result in recovery of the aircraft when this event was recreated in simulators multiple times.

She did not follow that procedure.

She screwed up.

Watch the video linked in post 40.


97 posted on 02/07/2022 3:14:02 PM PST by Jotmo (Whoever said, "The pen is mightier than the sword." has clearly never been stabbed to death.)
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To: DiogenesLamp

“You can recover from this at higher speeds and higher altitudes, but you often cannot recover from this at low speeds and low altitudes.”

Correct, but in this case it was recoverable if the procedure was followed.

This was demonstrated in multiple simulation recreations of this incident.

Please watch the video linked in post 40.


98 posted on 02/07/2022 3:18:20 PM PST by Jotmo (Whoever said, "The pen is mightier than the sword." has clearly never been stabbed to death.)
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To: hinckley buzzard

As long as she crashes every 59th time she is “good enough”. Right.


99 posted on 02/07/2022 3:27:24 PM PST by Gary from Dayton (Scary unvaccinated American )
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To: Fury

I don’t mock this woman’s death, but the sad fact is our military has become a social engineering group and in that sense worthy of ridicule.


100 posted on 02/07/2022 3:29:46 PM PST by Persevero (You cannot comply your way out of tyranny. )
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