Navy Pilot Dies After Ejecting From Burning Jet

A Navy pilot died Saturday after ejecting from a fighter jet that caught fire during a training flight and crashed into 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 University of California, San Diego, 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. She was rescued by a Coast Guard boat and later was listed in good condition at Navy Hospital in Balboa Park.

Based in Florida

Hawley and Cullen were based 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 across from a submarine base at North Island.

‘Flames Were Spewing’

“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,” he said. “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.”

Leslie Triplett, 20, who was fishing with Mistok, heard “a pop.”

“I saw one parachute,” Triplett said. “It was barely high enough for it to open, but it did. The plane barely missed two sailboats.”

A San Diego Fire Deparment spokesman said that Hawley apparently stayed with the plane until the last minute before ejecting.