[BITList] Marines: Multiple errors caused San Diego crash

[John Feltham]

Marines: Multiple errors caused San Diego crash

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD and ELLIOT SPAGAT – 50 minutes ago

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Marines knew five months before a military jet crashed
into a home and killed four members of a family that the aircraft may
have trouble getting fuel from tank to engine.

That ignored warning was only one misstep in what the Marines called a
string of bad decisions that led the F/A-18D Hornet to slam into a
densely populated residential neighborhood Dec. 8.

Low oil pressure killed the first engine shortly after takeoff, the
Marines said Tuesday. The jet crashed with about 340 gallons of fuel
that were choked off from the second engine, causing a fiery explosion
that torched two homes and came close to a high school.

Potential problems with the plane's fuel transfer surfaced in July, but
the Marines sent the aircraft on another 146 flights before it crashed,
said Col. John Rupp, operations officer for the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

The dozens of successful flights after the warning "lured the
maintenance personnel into a state of complacency," Rupp said.

Military investigators faulted officers at Marine Corps Air Station
Miramar for clearing the pilot, Lt. Dan Neubauer, to land at the inland
base instead of the closest landing at a coastal Navy base — a route
that also would have avoided flying over homes.

They also criticized the pilot for neglecting to consult a checklist of
emergency procedures and failing to grasp the severity of his problems.

The military disciplined 13 members of the Marines and Navy for a series
of errors that led to the crash, including four officers who were
relieved of their duties. Investigators found no evidence of criminal
wrongdoing.

Neubauer, who ejected safely two miles from the runway, has not been
disciplined but his actions will be reviewed at Marine Corps  
headquarters.

Recordings of conversations between federal air controllers and the
pilot show the pilot was repeatedly offered a chance to land the plane
at the Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado. The base sits at the
tip of a peninsula with a flight path over water.

Instead, the Federal Aviation Administration tapes disclose that the
pilot decided to fly the jet, which had lost one engine and was showing
signs of trouble with the second, to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar,
which is about 10 miles north of Coronado.

The first engine indicated low oil pressure 10 minutes into the
47-minute training flight, which began from the carrier USS Abraham
Lincoln off the San Diego coast, Rupp said. The pilot shut off the
engine seven minutes later.

A squadron representative on the aircraft carrier told the pilot to land
at North Island, which was a "conservative and prudent decision," Rupp  
said.

A low-fuel warning occurred 25 minutes into the flight, when the plane
was 61 miles off the coast from North Island, Rupp said.

Officers at Miramar, including the squadron's commanding officer,
cleared the pilot to go to the inland base, favoring Miramar's longer
runway and assuming the pilot was closer to the base than he really was,
Rupp said.

Col. Kurt Brubaker, staff judge advocate of the 3rd Marine Aircraft
Wing, said no one person shouldered all the blame.

"Collectively, there were a number of judgment errors," he said.

Four officers in Miramar-based Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron
101, including the commanding officer, have been relieved of duty for
failing to follow safety procedures and allowing the Hornet to fly over
the residential area. Nine other Marine and Navy personnel received
lesser reprimands.

Killed in their home were Young Mi Yoon, 36; her daughters Grace, 15
months, and Rachel, 2 months; and her mother Suk Im Kim, 60.