The Death That Won't Die

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By Marc Peyser

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When lt. Kara Hultgreen fatally crashed her F-14A while trying to make a carrier landing last October, navy aviators whispered that she was proof that women shouldn't fly combat jets. Last month, navy brass held a press conference and released a dramatic video to quell this talk. They produced records showing that Hultgreen was an above-average pilot, and insisted that engine failure, not pilot error, was to blame.

The navy's internal report, however, shows that Hultgreen's mistakes did contribute to her crash. The Mishap Investigation Report, obtained by Newsweek, states that when Hultgreen overcorrected on a bad approach to the carrier, she stalled one of her two engines. A clogged engine, a stall-warning light failure and patchy training were partly to blame, but the report faults Hultgreen for failing to deal properly with the emergency. An experienced pilot could have coped; Hultgreen the novice was overwhelmed. The officers who provided the report to Newsweek said that gender had nothing to do with Hultgreen's fatal accident; dozens of male pilots have crashed F-14As. The navy had no official comment.

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