Woman Flight Officer Injured : Navy Pilot Dies After Jet Plunges Into S.D. Bay

A Navy pilot died Saturday after ejecting from a fighter jet that caught fire during a training flight and crashed in the channel leading into sailboat-filled San Diego Bay. A woman flight officer survived.

Apparently trying to avoid running into sailboats, Lt. Matthew C. Hawley of St. Louis ejected from the aircraft at such a low altitude that his parachute failed to open. He was rescued from the water by fishermen and taken by Life Flight helicopter to UC Medical Center, where he died about an hour later. Hawley’s age was not disclosed by the Navy, but a San Diego Fire Department spokesman said he was about 30.

Lt. Kathryn Cullen of South Hole, N.Y., a flight officer operating radar equipment, also ejected from the plane and was able to partially open her parachute. Cullen was listed in good condition at Navy Hospital in Balboa Park.

Hawley and Cullen were based with the jet at Key West Naval Air Station in Florida and were operating out of Miramar Naval Air Station.

North Island Naval Air Station spokesman Ken Mitchell said the TA-4 Skyhawk was on an electronics mission as part of a war training exercise with submarines, surface ships and aircraft.

The cause of the crash was under investigation.

According to witnesses and Navy and San Diego Fire Department spokesmen, the jet was flying toward North Island Naval Air Station for an emergency landing when it dove into the channel about 200 yards off Shelter Island. The plane fell in about 40 feet of water in a normal approach and departure area across from a submarine base at North Island.

Harbor Police Officer Sharon Hudson said the plane hit the water about 1:05 p.m.

San Diego Fire Department spokesman Mel Young said the department received a call on the downed plane at 1:13 p.m.

“Flames were spewing out of the back of the plane,” said Ted Mistok, 36, a fisherman who witnessed the crash from Shelter Island.

“Two parts popped out of the back, the wing caught fire, it started banking and it went down at a right angle. The whole thing took maybe 15 or 20 seconds. There were a lot of boats in the area. I couldn’t believe it didn’t hit one of them,” Mistok said.

Leslie Triplett, 20, who was fishing with Mistok, said there was “a pop” and when the plane began to turn into the water, “I saw one parachute. It was barely high enough for it to open, but it did. The plane barely missed two sailboats.”

Coast Guard spokesmen said Cullen, about 25, was picked up by a small Coast Guard boat near the crash site. She was transferred to a Coast Guard vehicle and taken to the Navy Hospital, the Coast Guard spokesman said.

The Fire Deparment’s Young said Hawley apparently stayed with the plane until the last minute and that his parachute did not open when he ejected.

“I think he was very brave to stick with that plane as long as he did,” Young said.

Mitchell of the Navy said pilots “are trained to be aware when they are going down in a populated area.”

Young said two civilian fishermen pulled Hawley out of the water and into their boat, where they began administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Hawley then was transferred to a Harbor Police boat and taken to a boat landing, where paramedics tried to stabilize the victim before he was taken by Life Flight helicopter to UC Medical Center. He died at the hospital at 2:30 p.m. of multiple internal injuries.

Coast Guard boats kept boaters away from the crash site as Navy divers combed the bay for the fallen aircraft. The wreckage was spotted about 6 p.m. Saturday and is to be removed about 9 this morning.

In March, a Navy plane from Miramar Naval Air Station crashed into the parking lot of a Sorrento Valley high-tech industrial complex after its engine caught fire. The F-8 Crusader burned and charred 18 cars, but only two people were injured in that accident. The pilot, who stayed with the aircraft until it was within 250 feet of the ground, was not hurt.