Kara Hultgreen

Kara Spears Hultgreen
October 5 1965 – October 25, 1994
Kara Hultgreen with an F-14 Tomcat
Place of birth	Greenwich, Connecticut
Place of death	Killed in plane crash off San Diego, California
Years of service	1987-1994
Rank	Lieutenant

Kara Spears Hultgreen (October 5 1965 – October 25, 1994), a Lieutenant in the United States Navy, was the first female naval carrier-based fighter pilot. She was killed just months after she was certified for combat, when the left engine of her F-14 Tomcat failed on final approach to USS Abraham Lincoln. A formal investigation found that the cause of the crash was a combination of mechanical failure and pilot error.

Youth

Hultgreen was born on October 5 1965 in Greenwich, Connecticut, and raised in both Chicago and Toronto. Hultgreen later moved to San Antonio in 1981 after her parents divorced. She attended Alamo Heights High School, and won an appointment to the Naval Academy, but she did not receive a designated spot. Following this news, she attended the University of Texas at Austin where she majored in Aerospace Engineering.

Military career

In order to pursue her dream of becoming an astronaut, she enrolled in aviation officer candidate school in Pensacola's Naval Air Station. Upon her graduation (ranked third of seven in her class) she was posted in Key West and flew A-6 Intruders. Her callsign was "Incredible Hulk", probably due to her last name, and her above average height. (6') Though the combat ban for women was officially repealed in 1991, the Navy did not implement the changes until 1993. Deciding she wanted something more than ground attack aviation, she enrolled in the F-14 Tomcat program at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego. While with Fleet Replacement Squadron VF-124 Gunfighters, Hultgreen failed her first attempt at carrier qualification—not uncommon in naval aviation. Upon her landing on Constellation in the summer of 1994, she became the first qualified female F-14 pilot. She was assigned to the Black Lions of VF-213, and began preparing to go to the Persian Gulf. Some of her commanding officers and peers said she was a skilled pilot, ranking "Average" to "Above Average" on everything she did. After a television appearance in which she wore detectable makeup, she received a new call sign: "Revlon."

Death

On October 25 1994 Hultgreen was killed when her F-14 crashed on approach to the USS Abraham Lincoln off of San Diego after a routine mission. Finding herself too high, Hultgreen attempted to correct her approach by yawing the aircraft to induce a sideslip in order to lose altitude. In combination with an engine fault characteristic of the TF30-P-414A engine, this led to the left-hand engine suffering a compressor stall and losing power, as air was no longer flowing straight into it. The F-14 flight manual warns against sideslips at any time for this reason.

After aborting the approach, Hultgreen selected full afterburner on the remaining engine. The engines on the F-14 are mounted far apart and Hultgreen needed full opposite rudder to compensate for the off-center thrust. Whilst distracted by this, the proximity of the sea, and the engine failure, she raised the nose of the aircraft too far as she tried to climb away, resulting in an unrecoverable stall and rapid wing-drop to the left. The Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) in the rear seat 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 0.4s later, the plane had rolled past the horizontal, and she was ejected downward into the water, killing her instantly. The entire event unfolded in less than twenty seconds.

On November 12, 19 days after the crash, the Navy salvaged the plane and recovered her body, still strapped into the ejection seat, in a $100,000 operation. The wreckage was in 3,700 feet of water. She was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

Investigation

The Navy's Mishap Investigation Report (MIR) for Hultgreen's crash was sealed, and rumors abounded that the investigation had found pilot error to be a contributing factor, despite a Navy press release to the contrary. The report was later leaked over the Internet and is now readily available, confirming that Hultgreen was assigned partial responsibility for the engine flameout and subsequent failure to retain control and recover from the problem. It also described known mechanical problems with the plane flown that day that could increase the likelihood of flameout, concluding, "although not sufficient alone to stall the eng[ine], this malfunction, combined with reduced throttle setting and sideslip, contributed to left eng[ine] comp[ressor] stall."

As with most approaches to a carrier landing, Hultgreen's incident was videotaped by two cameras. The tape shows an overshooting turn onto final, then apparent engine failure, followed by an audible wave-off and gear-up command from the Landing Signal Officer. Segments shown on broadcast television concluded with the rapid sequence of aircraft stall, roll, crew ejections, and impact with the water. One more fact was the media rumors that Kara was never actually qualified to fly the F-14.

Reaction

After her death, questions arose concerning her qualifications and the circumstances surrounding her appointment to carrier operations. Factions assembled quickly, defending and excoriating Hultgreen, the US Navy, and other associations with the 1991 Tailhook scandal. Detractors pointed to the crash as evidence of incompetence, while supporters showed video of Hultgreen landing an A-6 competently after a gear failure. Little objective analysis was attempted, and much of the evidence surrounding Hultgreen's advancement and death is anecdotal. When a male pilot crashes during a carrier approach, it generally is not publicized beyond the initial announcement, so it is difficult for the public to make knowledgeable comparisons. Official records indicate that she was qualified to fly, and that no special exceptions were made. However, those records are kept and distributed by interested parties.

Many people in the military aviation community believe that she had no business piloting an F-14 and that she was "pushed" through the program simply to have a female fighter pilot. During her training, Hultgreen had accumulated 4 "downs", or major errors. Normally, having just one or two downs would be enough to permanently prevent anyone from being a military pilot. But despite being unqualified, Hultgreen was allowed to continue, because the military was using affirmative action to try to get more female pilots. [1]

References

Kara Spears Hultgreen, Lieutenant, United States Navy. Arlington National Cemetery. Retrieved on 2006-07-25.

J.D. Baldwin. F14 Hultgreen accident. Retrieved on 2006-07-25. Discussion of MIR.