Last week, two Naval aviators were killed when their plane crashed near Mount Rainier in Washington State. They had just come back from a mission in the Middle East, where they helped strike against the Houthis in Yemen.
The plane that Lt. Cmdr. Lyndsay P. Evans (31) and Lt. Serena N. Wileman (31) were in crashed on Tuesday, killing both of them. The reason for the crash is being looked into.
The two pilots had just come back from the Middle East, where they were stationed on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower as part of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 130 and fought against the Houthis, who were backed by Iran, and protected busy shipping routes.
Captain Chris “Chowdah” Hill, who was in charge of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, said he was sorry for the deaths of the two pilots. “These brave warriors from VAQ-130 will always be a part of the Ike family because they served with us so well on our most recent deployment.” I loved working with both of them; they had so much energy and were such kind people.
Wileman, whose Navy callsign was “Dug,” won three Strike Flight Air Medals for her part in combat flights from December 2017 to March 2018.
The Navy said Evans, whose call sign was “Miley,” got Single Action Air Medals for his part in a large group of attacks on Houthi targets on January 12 and again on January 22. The group she was in charge of trained people as part of Carrier Air Wing Three.
The Navy says Evans was in several combat strikes against Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. This made her one of the first women to fly combat flights over land. She also got three Strike Flight Air Medals for her help on missions made from December to March of this year.
Evans had a much more public task the year before as part of the all-female Super Bowl flyover that celebrated 50 years of women piloting in the Navy.
Evans told King 5 in Seattle before Super Bowl LVII, “It’s just so exciting to be chosen.”
Last week, Evans and Wileman were on a normal training trip near Mount Rainier when their plane went down. It took three days to look for their fallen fighter jet because of bad weather and rough terrain. The Navy said that search and rescue teams found the plane’s wreckage in a “remote, steep, and heavily wooded area” about 6,000 feet east of Rainier.
The Navy says they often flew together on an EA-18G, which is a modified version of an F/A-18 fighter jet.
Source: Two Navy pilots killed in jet crash had recently returned from Middle East deployment
