Congressman: Pilot followed procedure in deadly crash

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A military pilot whose jet crashed into a suburban San Diego home, killing four, followed procedure and ejected from the plane as the troubled aircraft went down, a California congressman said Thursday.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said the pilot was wrestling with an aircraft whose two engines had failed before he parachuted to the ground.

"The Marines' investigation is in its preliminary stages, but it is apparent that the pilot operating the aircraft followed procedure before ejecting," Hunter said Thursday after he was briefed on the investigation into Monday's fatal crash.

"Double engine failure in the F/A-18D is an extremely rare occurrence, and the pilot made every effort to bring the aircraft under control," Hunter said in a statement.

Four people -- two adults and two children, all members of a Korean family -- died when the jet slammed into their house.

Witnesses reported seeing the aircraft at a low altitude but hearing no engine noise shortly before the jet went down in the University City community in San Diego.

In an emotional news conference Tuesday near the crash site, Dong Yun Yoon, who lost his family in the crash, said he did not blame the pilot.

"Please pray for him not to suffer from this accident," a distraught Yoon said as members of San Diego's Korean community stood around him. "He is one of our treasures for the country."

Yoon identified the victims as his infant daughter Rachel, who was less than 2 months old; his 15-month-old daughter, Grace; his wife, Young Mi Yoon, 36; and her 60-year-old mother, Suk Im Kim, who he said had come to the United States from Korea recently to help care for the children.

The jet was headed to nearby Marine Corps Air Station Miramar after the pilot reported having trouble. The pilot had been training at carrier landings at a Naval carrier offshore.

Hunter dismissed speculation that the pilot should have been diverted to a landing site away from the residential area.

"The aircraft's altitude and speed, in addition to surrounding air traffic and terrain, made it difficult to divert to another location," Hunter said.

Hunter's spokesman, Joe Kasper, said the jet's right engine failed first. Then, as the pilot headed toward the Miramar field, the left engine failed.

"These aircraft can operate with one engine for an extended period of time," Kasper said. "To have both engines fail is -- according to the briefing officers -- extremely rare. It's the stuff they train for on simulators but don't ever have to face in thousands of hours of flying in that aircraft."

Kasper said that the pilot ejected at 2,200 feet -- "relatively low to the ground" -- and that if he had waited much longer, his survival would have been "very much in question."

The pilot was hospitalized after the crash, but the Marine Corps has not released his name or his condition.

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