LT Kara Hultgreen was the first USN female fighter pilot qualified in the F-14A Tomcat. Hultgreen had a mediocre training record, but was flagged as the leader in the fighter pilot derby. In addition, Hultgreen was not a safe pilot, because she'd had five Class A accidents [where the aircraft is seriously damaged or destroyed]. A male officer would have had his flight status pulled after two, but Hultgreen was allowed five.
On 25 October 1994, Hultgreen was killed when her F-14A, crashed on approach to USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) off the coast of San Diego after a routine training mission.
Finding herself overshooting the landing area centerline, Hultgreen attempted to correct her approach by applying left rudder pedal which caused the nose to disrupt the airflow over the left (inside) wing as well as the airflow to the left engine intake. (The Approach Turn Stall, aerodynamic effect and the appropriate recovery technique were taught throughout the period that Hultgreen completed primary [undergraduate] flight training.) The left-hand engine suffered a compressor stall and lost power -- a well-known deficiency characteristic of the F-14A's TF30 engine when inlet air was no longer flowing straight into it. The F-14 NATOPS flight manual warned against excess yaw for this reason. Loss of an F-14 engine results in asymmetric thrust, which can exceed rudder authority, especially at low speeds.
After aborting the approach, Hultgreen selected full afterburner on the remaining engine, causing an even greater asymmetry. This, combined with a high angle of attack, caused an unrecoverable approach turn stall and rapid wing drop to the left. The radar intercept officer (RIO) in the rear seat, LT Matthew Klemish, initiated ejection for himself and Hultgreen as soon as it was apparent that the aircraft was becoming uncontrollable. First in the automated ejection sequence, the RIO survived. However, by the time Hultgreen's seat fired 0.4 seconds later, the plane had rolled past the horizontal and she was ejected downward into the water. She was killed instantly. The entire event unfolded in less than 20 seconds.
Just a comment: I am somewhat familiar with the story, and I don’t think she had five Class-A incidents, because that would be a dramatically significant accumulation for a Lieutenant in the Navy.
According to the documentation, a “Class A mishap is one in which the total cost of damage to property or aircraft or UAV exceeds $1,000,000, or a naval aircraft is destroyed or missing, or any fatality or permanent total disability results from the direct involvement of naval aircraft or UAV.”
She had four training incidents (as you correctly point out, two would be enough to gt a pilot washed out...usually) but they kept pushing her through. I think these kinds of training incidents were the kind of thing like shooting down your own plane in an engagement, going through an altitude limitation with no good justification or otherwise deviating from the established aviation/NATOPS procedures in such a way that under the right circumstances could result in an accident or loss of life. I don’t thing they were actual accidents...that would be pretty remarkable that they even let her near a plane, in that case if she actually did have five Class-A incidents! (Many of us would think someone like John McCain treads in that territory!)
Your post was otherwise an accurate one, and describes it well.