Wreckage of Navy Jet Pulled From Crash Site in S.D. Bay

The mangled remains of the Navy jet that crashed into San Diego Bay on Saturday, killing its pilot and injuring a flight officer, were retrieved Sunday afternoon after divers worked eight hours to attach hooks to the fuselage in murky water.

The TA-4 Skyhawk was pulled from a depth of 52 feet about 4 p.m. by a 75-ton barge crane that had been towed to the crash site about 700 yards off Shelter Island.

The jet crashed into the bay about 1 p.m. Saturday when Lt. Matthew C. Hawley attempted an emergency landing at North Island Naval Air Station. Witnesses said the pilot steered clear of boats and ships in the bay, including one carrying Girl Scouts on an expedition, before the jet pitched and hit the water.

Hawley, 26, of Chesterfield, Mo., died of multiple injuries after he ejected from the plane at a low altitude and his parachute did not open. He was pulled out of the water by fishermen and taken by Life Flight helicopter to UC San Diego Medical Center, where he died within an hour.

Flight officer Lt. Kathryn Ann Cullen, 25, of Southold, N.Y., was treated at Navy Hospital in Balboa Park and was released Sunday morning. Witnesses said Cullen’s parachute had opened partially and she was able to swim after hitting the water.

Navy spokesman Ken Mitchell said the single-engine aircraft had left Miramar Naval Air Station at 12:50 p.m. Saturday on a readiness exercise. Shortly after takeoff, Hawley declared an emergency over the jet radio. “It appeared he had mechanical difficulties,” Mitchell said.

“He also wasn’t sure if his landing gear was operating properly, so he made a low pass at the North Island tower--flying very low so the tower people could see if the landing gear was locked in place. That is why it appeared he had just taken off from North Island.”

Mitchell said the pilot had turned the plane up the channel for an approach to the airfield when the plane went down at 1:05 p.m. Witnesses reported seeing a burst of flames before the aircraft crashed.

According to Navy spokesman John Semcken at Miramar Naval Air Station, Hawley and Cullen were flying the electronic warfare training jet on a simulated raid to try to deceive the radar of Navy ships and planes off the coast of San Diego.

“No training was going on in his (Hawley’s) airplane whatsoever,” Semcken said. The people training, he said, were those operating the radar on the ships and airplanes that Hawley and Cullen were trying to deceive.

“They were participating in a readiness exercise,” Semcken said.

Lt. John Hopkins, spokesman for the Naval Submarine Base, said the Navy’s accident and mishap board will analyze the wreckage for clues to determine the cause of the crash. He estimated that it will be 10 days to two weeks before investigators release information.

According to Semcken, the Navy is also investigating the crash into the ocean of an A-4 Skyhawk (which has one seat instead of two) 75 miles south of San Diego last Wednesday. The pilot ejected safely after the plane apparently malfunctioned.

The Skyhawk crashes are two of three airplanes out of Miramar that have gone down this year, Semcken said. An F-8 Crusader plowed into a Sorrento Valley parking lot in March, missing buildings and injuring two people on the ground. The pilot ejected unharmed.

Four planes out of Miramar crashed last year; one was an A-4 Skyhawk, the same model used by the Blue Angels precision flying team. The TA-4 Skyhawk has been in use for more than 30 years, Semcken said, but he did not know when the plane that crashed Saturday was built.

Divers located the submerged plane Saturday evening and began attaching equipment Sunday. Cmdr. Jerry Hudson, head of the Navy’s Submarine Development Group, a research and development organization that retrieves plane wrecks around the world, said his divers were hampered Sunday by poor visibility and the condition of the aircraft.

San Diego Harbor Police and Coast Guard vessels kept sport and recreational boats from entering the area around the crash site until about 4 p.m. Sunday, but the channel was not blocked, and dozens of sailboats and fishing vessels dotted the bay throughout the day.

Lt. Hawley, who had been with the Navy since December, 1980, was designated a pilot in February, 1984, and had been with the electronic warfare training squadron since June, 1984. He was based at the Naval Air Station in Key West, Fla.

Cullen, who was a Naval ROTC student at Cornell University, was commissioned in the Navy in May of 1981. She received her wings as a Navy flight officer in December, 1982, and joined the squadron in June, 1983. She also is based at Key West.