Tragedy *UPDATED*
The fact that a military jet crashed in a residential neighbor in San Diego, killing three people (including children), and possibly killing a fourth, is a terrible tragedy. What’s also a tragedy, though, is the pilot’s life from this moment on. Something happened in his jet that left him able to save himself (which was probably a reasonable decision), but helpless to save others. I can’t imagine being in his shoes or in his head. Barring our learning something awful about the choices he made in that cockpit, my sympathy goes out to him, as it does to the families of those killed.
UPDATE: It seems I was right about the pilot’s innocence and sense of responsibility:
The stunned pilot parachuted to safety and was seen staggering dazed near the crash site in the San Diego suburb of Universal City. He was later taken to Balboa Naval Hospital for treatment to injuries.
A construction contractor working nearby who rushed to the pilot’s aid said the aviator was ‘a little shaken up’ when he first got down from the trees but otherwise seemed fine.
‘The first thing he said to me, even before he said, ‘I’m OK,’ he said, ‘I hope I didn’t kill anybody,'” contractor Jason Widmer said. He said the pilot, a lieutenant, told him both the fighter jet’s engines had failed in flight.
The pilot, a lieutenant, told witnesses that the plane lost one engine over the Pacific during a training exercise and air traffic controllers decided he should try to limp back to base.
But when the second engine failed, he was left with no choice but to eject. The plane was about 20 years old.
I’d be willing to bet that, among the survivors in that stricken family, there’s a feeling that it’s grossly unfair that the pilot was injured while their loved ones died. However, on these facts, his death would have left the situation unchanged, and would simply have added another level to the tragedy. In other words, if you cannot affect others for the better by sacrificing yourself, you should live.
UPDATE II: The sole surviving member of that devasted family was more gracious than one can readily imagine:
A Korean immigrant who lost his wife, two children and mother-in-law when a Marine Corps jet slammed into the family’s house said Tuesday he did not blame the pilot, who ejected and survived.
“Please pray for him not to suffer from this accident,” a distraught Dong Yun Yoon told reporters gathered near the site of Monday’s crash of an F/A-18D jet in San Diego’s University City community.
“He is one of our treasures for the country,” Yoon said in accented English punctuated by long pauses while he tried to maintain his composure.
“I don’t blame him. I don’t have any hard feelings. I know he did everything he could,” said Yoon, flanked by members of San Diego’s Korean community, relatives and members from the family’s church.
What a generous gift for a stricken man to give to that poor pilot.
