US Govt to pay $17.8M for F/A-18D crash near KNKX

[MikeD]

From the crash of the F/A-18D into the San Diego neighborhood 4 years ago. The home the jet impacted into, the man living there lost his wife, both his daughters, and his mother-in-law. It may be remembered that this same man was very supportive and never blamed the USMC pilot for the accident, and to this day still doesn't. Last chapter of this accident appears finally closed.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the U.S. government to pay $17.8 million to a family that lost four members when a Marine Corps fighter jet crashed into their San Diego home in 2008.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller's ruling came after a nonjury trial between the Department of Justice and the family, who sought $56 million for emotional and monetary loss.

Don Yoon lost his 36-year-old wife, Youngmi Lee Yoon; his 15-month-old daughter, Grace; his 2-month-old daughter, Rachel; and his 59-year-old mother-in-law, Seokim Kim Lee, who was visiting from Korea to help her eldest daughter take care of their children.

Yoon said in a statement that Miller's ruling was "thoughtful, reasoned and just." Yoon broke down crying throughout his testimony, which came three years to the day when he buried his wife and baby girls in the same casket. He told the judge he only looks forward to the day when he can join them.
"Our family is relieved this part of the process is over, but no sum of money will ever make up for the loss of our loved ones," he said.

The Marine Corps has said the plane suffered a mechanical failure but a series of bad decisions led the pilot — a student — to bypass a potentially safe landing at a coastal Navy base after his engine failed on Dec. 8, 2008. The pilot ejected and told investigators he screamed in horror as he watched the jet plow into the neighborhood, incinerating two homes.

The case was unique in that the government admitted liability but disputed how much should be paid to Yoon and his extended family. Government lawyers had put economic losses at about $1 million but left it up to Miller to decide how much should be paid for the loss of love and companionship.
Department of Justice attorneys offered their condolences during the trial but questioned how much the family members depended on each other. The law does not allow victims to be compensated for grief, suffering or punitive damages.

The judge said the deaths of the two girls deprived Yoon of "the comfort, companionship, society and love a young child is capable of providing to a new parent and, then, in later life. By all accounts, the Yoon girls would have been raised with traditional cultural and family values emphasizing love and devotion to parents and family."

He ordered Yoon to be awarded nearly $10 million, and his father-in-law to be given nearly $4 million. The rest should go to the father-in-law's three adult children for the loss of their mother, Seokim Kim Lee. (continued)

Story here:

http://news.yahoo.com/govt-pay-family-17-8m-military-jet-crash-195421909.html

 

[CoffeeIcePapers]

Sad story. I was under the assumption you couldn't sue the government for things like this.

 

[MikeD]

Federal law does allow, in cases of damage or loss, 2 years to file a claim with the JAG corps of the respective service involved. The Tort Claims people at JAG review the claim and it goes from there once government culpability is determined. The Govt makes an offer of settlement, and if not accepted, the claim goes further forward.

 

[///AMG]

Glad to hear it, that guy really must have been hit hard. I'm not normally that supportive of folks suing the govt/manufacturer for accidents, but in this case, I don't think it came from a place of misplaced anger, or for seeking retribution. Guy lost everything, and as a first generation immigrant, I doubt he had much to fall back on. IMHO it was the right thing to do. Mishap jet was from my old squadron, and it definitely changed the way we did business.......among other things that are probably beyond the scope or privilege of this discussion, it highlighted the importance of not bringing a broken single-engine-emergency jet back over socal and populated areas.

 

[MikeD]

Glad to hear it, that guy really must have been hit hard. I'm not normally that supportive of folks suing the govt/manufacturer for accidents, but in this case, I don't think it came from a place of misplaced anger, or for seeking retribution. Guy lost everything, and as a first generation immigrant, I doubt he had much to fall back on. IMHO it was the right thing to do.

Agree. You probably remember the videos on the news and interviews where he never had any anger towards the pilot or the USMC. Even after all he lost and so short a time after it happening, he was very still very concerned and supportive of the pilot.

Mishap jet was from my old squadron, and it definitely changed the way we did business.......among other things that are probably beyond the scope or privilege of this discussion, it highlighted the importance of not bringing a broken single-engine-emergency jet back over socal and populated areas.

That was one of the first things I wondered after it happened, coming from offshore with the problems he was having and NZY being a very suitable, if not a normal, divert.

 

[pullup]

Good deal, all I know if I lost my whole family is how soon I could die myself. I would either A) meet up with them in the afterlife or B) Be dead and at least escape the emotional suffering.

I am sure the pilot is dealing with his own baggage especially ince it was completely preventable.

 

[MikeD]

I am sure the pilot is dealing with his own baggage especially ince it was completely preventable.

Likely so. Lousy part for him was, being an FRS student, most of his decisionmaking was being made for him by squadron supervision on the ground at NKX. I don't specifically know if he was wanting to go to NZY but was overruled, or if it didn't occur to him and he was be led by the supervisory personnel to go back to NKX anyway.

 

[///AMG]

Agree. You probably remember the videos on the news and interviews where he never had any anger towards the pilot or the USMC. Even after all he lost and so short a time after it happening, he was very still very concerned and supportive of the pilot.

Yeah, I remember being quite surprised by his response.

That was one of the first things I wondered after it happened, coming from offshore with the problems he was having and NZY being a very suitable, if not a normal, divert.

When I did Hornet CQ out in the W291 (obviously post mishap), NZY was the standard divert, whether it was a simple min fuel/bingo divert, or a more complicated issue. There really is no good reason to go to NKX......NZY is closer to pretty much all of the papa areas, it is a familiar field, it's just a short drive for a mx recovery det, and most importantly, the overwater RWY 36 approach keeps you well away from any people or property (and has short field gear in battery as well). Big takeaway was that you don't bring a single engine Hornet back over the beach for any reason. Unfortunately we had to be reminded of that the hard way. I'm sure it was probably just one of those organizational inertia things, after enough experiences doing just what the MP did, with no issues/safe recovery. The thing a lot of people either forgot about, or just overlooked was that OPNAV 3710 has always stipulated that crews of 2 engined aircraft with single-engine emergencies "shall land at the nearest suitable runway". This becomes especially important with old RAG jets, that occasionally do funny things that they aren't supposed to do when a motor is shut down.

 

[///AMG]

Likely so. Lousy part for him was, being an FRS student, most of his decisionmaking was being made for him by squadron supervision on the ground at NKX. I don't specifically know if he was wanting to go to NZY but was overruled, or if it didn't occur to him and he was be led by the supervisory personnel to go back to NKX anyway.

Yeah, we can armchair quarterback him all we want, but as a new guy, there is a lot of pressure to do as you are told and not a lot of personal experience or credibility to back your own decisions up with. Any time the words "emergency" or "problem" come up over base freq from an aircraft in the air, the CO/XO/Opso are always mysteriously less than 30 seconds away. I'm sure the guy was well aware of who was listening in. I know I was when I had a similar IFE last month. Another important lesson from this was just a reminder to those of us with nugget wings on our chests that at the end of the day, you are still the PIC/aircraft commander not anyone else, and it will be your warm body standing tall in front of the long green table with the Admiral, answering to your decisions, right or wrong. That kind of responsibility is why we get the big bucks I suppose.

 

[MikeD]

Yeah, we can armchair quarterback him all we want, but as a new guy, there is a lot of pressure to do as you are told and not a lot of personal experience or credibility to back your own decisions up with. Any time the words "emergency" or "problem" come up over base freq from an aircraft in the air, the CO/XO/Opso are always mysteriously less than 30 seconds away. I'm sure the guy was well aware of who was listening in. I know I was when I had a similar IFE last month. Another important lesson from this was just a reminder to those of us with nugget wings on our chests that at the end of the day, you are still the PIC/aircraft commander not anyone else, and it will be your warm body standing tall in front of the long green table with the Admiral, answering to your decisions, right or wrong. That kind of responsibility is why we get the big bucks I suppose.

The amount of people who try to fly your plane during an emergency as an FRS student is only slightly less than when you're a UPT or VT sudent. But not by much.

 

[FlyMarines09]

I know the pilot of this aircraft. Nice guy, certainly not his fault. It really is a sad story and unfortunate accident

 

[MikeD]

Another important lesson from this was just a reminder to those of us with nugget wings on our chests that at the end of the day, you are still the PIC/aircraft commander not anyone else, and it will be your warm body standing tall in front of the long green table with the Admiral, answering to your decisions, right or wrong. That kind of responsibility is why we get the big bucks I suppose.

While it was known that the aircraft was RTB single-engine (IIRC), what caused the eventual ejection? Did the other engine fail as well? Some other emergency compounding? Couldn't stay aloft on the remaining engine eventually?

 

[WacoFan]

I know the pilot of this aircraft. Nice guy, certainly not his fault. It really is a sad story and unfortunate accident

Can you say what ended up happening with him? Can you say how he's doing?

 

[FlyMarines09]

He is still a Marine pilot flying F/A-18Cs. We just got back from deployment last fall. He seems to be doing well. He doesn't talk much about it, at least not to the enlisted side.
As to what led up to the actual ejection, I can't comment- I'm not 100% sure

 

[fholbert]

I know the father of the pilot. He's on the same field as I and also has a Bellanca Super Viking. Dad's a former Navy pilot and retired UPS pilot. It's been a while since I heard the story but it went something like this.

• At the time of the accident the pilot had 100 hours in the F-18. It was his THIRD engine failure.
• Getting back to a land base he was having trouble getting enough fuel to the tank that feeds the engine. There was also a problem with the fuel overheating.
• The squadron commander, head of maintenance, safety officer? and an IP were all on the radio.
• He was ordered to bring the plane back to Miramar where it was easier to fix.
• On final and in IMC (1000' ovc) the IP on the ground told him to try a restart on the bad engine after running a check list over the radio. When he did it starved the good engine of fuel.
• He had planed on riding the aircraft to the ground but it was headed for a canyon so he punched out at something like 600'. The aircraft turned into the homes.
• The Marine Pilot was recently on deployment where he spent time as the best pilot on the carrier (?) sorry I was in the Air Force. Guess it's tough for a Marine pilot to get that on a Navy ship.
• All involved stood up and told what really happened, no coverup.
• Pretty much everyone involved in this accident was fired EXCEPT the pilot.
• Dads criticism of his son was he should have turned off all radios except ATC.
• It took 2 or 3 days in the simulator to duplicate what happened

 

[///AMG]

Some true, some false to the above. Bottom line, is that I fully agree with the board decision to keep the guy flying. I'd heard he still was, and I'm glad he got through it. He got served a crap sandwich, and did his best IMHO. I know how little brain power I had left while I was in the middle of CQ. As a fellow former RAG student, I don't blame the guy in the least.

 

[tonyw]

I'm not sure if procedure has changed as a result of this. However, last summer, an F-18 having trouble was ditched in the Pacific. They didn't even try to bring it in because of the risk of the plane crashing into a highly populated area.

While the area right at the airfield isn't densely populated, there are homes fairly close.

 

[Inverted]

Not going to North Island always really shocked me. When we were doing CQ off the coast NZY not only was the standard divert, but we always had a beach det there ready to work if an aircraft bingo'd or something worse. We were from Lemoore, but when VMFAT-101 went with us I remember them sending a beach det to NZY to join ours while the squadron was out. I do remember hearing he was pressured to go home and not to North Island. The Hornet, although it has 2 engines, really is hindered with the loss of one.

And I don't know how much I believe the good engine being starved when trying to restart the failed engine. Each engine has its own feed tank. (left engine tank 2, right engine tank 3.

 

[Boris Badenov]

Don't know enough to comment intelligently on the aircraft side, but the ruling seems just and the Father strikes me as a guy who deserved a better hand dealt. Hope they're both doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances.

 

[pullup]

Don't know enough to comment intelligently on the aircraft side, but the ruling seems just and the Father strikes me as a guy who deserved a better hand dealt. Hope they're both doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances.

Part of the deal should have been the father gets to pick someone higher up in this debacle, laden his home with C4, and push the plunger.