Man whose family was killed in military jet crash: No hard feelings
posted at 4:05 pm on December 10, 2008 by Allahpundit
Strong reactions in the comments to last night’s Headlines item on this, and understandably so. If you want to write to him, the boss has the address.
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My heart goes out to Mr. Dong and his family……….and the pilot.
I had a college classmate who lost his life in the Naval Reserve doing practice landings on a carrier. And, I remember that Dean Martin lost his son, Dino, who was in the Naval Reserve while flying his F-4 Phantom.
SC.Charlie on December 10, 2008 at 8:41 PM
NO. The halfwit brought it upont itself.
After letting emotions/feelings overcome the senses, the troll DISH OUT first on the honor of the young pilot.
After repeatedily being called out by others more knowledgeable, the fool stuck the foot in its mouth more firmly than ever by uttering even more foolishness.
Sir Napsalot on December 10, 2008 at 8:45 PM
I am grateful for them as well but when a pilot ejects and his plane kills innocents on the ground he has a lot to answer for, whether he is military or not.
Noneya on December 10, 2008 at 9:38 PM
sheebe
I am going to look into that.
Noneya
Sorry to jump on the dog pile. I can’t say that I am not guilty of posting something without thinking it through.
Seriously folks in this day and age of hot coffee lawsuits it really is refreshing to have someone acknowledge that bad things happen and not treat the situation like a winning lotto ticket…
Maybe if more people encouraged good behavior…
@ntif@n on December 10, 2008 at 9:48 PM
Why didn’t god just prevent this from happening? I mean to supernaturally help one to cope would be a miracle but to prevent this from ever happening would be even more godlike. Anyways my heart goes out to this fella.
whiskeytango on December 10, 2008 at 9:51 PM
Imagine him forgiving rather than lashing out.
Must be a Christian. Crazy Christians.
Bless’em.
Sapwolf on December 10, 2008 at 10:20 PM
Noneya,
My problem with your posts is your reflexive assumption that the pilot was in error, your inclination to blame our military men, your reluctance to give our brave warriors the benefit of the doubt. Frankly, I’m sick and tired of those of your ilk that cast aspersion on our military and our nation with your bilious, vile, noxious attitudes. Damnit, I love my country. I have enormous appreciation for our fighting men. And by golly, I intend to give them the benefit of the doubt. Until and unless they are proven to have fallen short I will stand by them.
You probably jumped on the Haditha bandwagon all the while patting yourself on the back for your putrid moral superiority. Moral exhibitionists such as yourself who would sacrifice the reputations of our fighting men for their own self promotion are despicable.
Charles Martel on December 10, 2008 at 10:27 PM
My prayers are with both Mr. Dong and the pilot. Military aviation is a cold, hard and unforgiving enterprise with virtually no margin for error. That said, this pilot had his hands full trying to nurse a damaged aircraft back to base, it appears he was on a straight in approach to 06L instead of the 24R (which is used for 99.9% of landings at Miramar because it avoids the residential areas, regardless of the wind direction ) this would indicate a severe problem with the aircraft. Most likely this will be attributed to an uncontained disk failure in one engine which ultimately compromised the other engine leading to a total engine failure with the ensuing lose of electrics and hydraulics. Unfortunately this event occurred at a point in the approach where there was very little if anything the pilot could do. Far to many aircrew have lost their lives trying to get a crippled bird home, the pressure to save the taxpayers dime is insidious. For those that speculate about control and timing there’s a terrific video out there of the 1st F14 crashing while on landing approach, its amazing the 2 test pilots got out alive. One more rant, I know of no officer that would ever refer to the aircraft as a weapon or the base operations staff as culprits in this type of accident.
dmann on December 10, 2008 at 10:29 PM
And I was sugar coating it!
One more thing. EVEN if our warriors error, if it was in good faith, I will give them the benefit of the doubt. I will not put our young men in harms way and then stand by and second guess them like a sniveling poltroon. You should go back and watch that video. That Korean immigrant can teach you a great deal about respect and love of country.
Charles Martel on December 10, 2008 at 10:30 PM
Ever been to Guam? Our tiny island has the best family/community support system during trying times. (albeit some are infected with entitlement mentality!)
Nevertheless, I have repeated this comment on other threads, Dong Yun Yoon is the strongest man in the world. There is no bigger man.
geckomon on December 10, 2008 at 10:37 PM
Briefly. Very nice place, and I liked the people, though I really didn’t stay long enough to get to know them.
BTW, for those unacquainted with Guam, it is considered part of the U.S., which is ironic because it’s far better known to the Japanese who visit it like we do Hawaii or the Caribbean.
theregoestheneighborhood on December 11, 2008 at 1:09 AM
May God comfort the dad for his loss….Mr Dong’s ability
to forgive can only have been inspired by Christ.
dec5 on December 11, 2008 at 4:54 AM
As opposed to staying in it.. crashing it and adding himself to the death toll? You defy reason and logic.
Passed on December 11, 2008 at 7:59 AM
God bless the family and God help the pilot. The pilot will agonize over this and relive this forever. My prayers for the family and especially the pilot.
grapeknutz on December 11, 2008 at 8:42 AM
whiskeytango,
I think G-d prevents these things from happening all the time. I guess those daily miracles just never make the headlines.
dave_lantos on December 11, 2008 at 9:15 AM
Both are understandable emotions coming from viewing the video and hearing the story. I too hope you are wrong, and would be shocked based on my own experience if the pilot did anything less than all he could. I would imagine he is still wondering if he would be better off had he not pulled it.
Nothing will bring those lives back – and that includes rushing to judgment – either way – in this incident.
I appreciate your considering the additional info/facts provided.
RDuke on December 11, 2008 at 9:38 AM
crscott,
“There certainly was a major pilot error as his plane should not have been in that position and altitude to begin with”
You do realize that for a plane to land, you need to get to a low altitude first, right?
exhelodrvr on December 11, 2008 at 10:33 AM
Sure, because everyone knows how much libs believe in sacrifice.
kongzilla on December 11, 2008 at 12:33 PM
I watched the smoke and fire from office. It’s a risk that we take living and working here. There were so many
assininedisgusting people in the paper yesterday blaming the pilot and military and advocating the removal of Miramar. I would ask them to look at the example of the man who lost the most, Mr Dong and leave their blatant political agenda until the ground is cool. The Marines take every precaution and err on the side of safety. They are very good neighbors. I hope that everything is investigated properly and there is no political witch hunt.shooten on December 11, 2008 at 12:47 PM
Noneya
“never have, but even if there was only 1 second left to control the direction of that crash I would have given my life to do just that.”
When you lose the engines you lose the hydraulics and electrical as well. There is NO CONTROL.
The pilot could no more control that plane than if it were a rock falling to ground.
Now if you plug in the crash location using google earth, you will see the OBVIOUS that the pilot was heading for the canyons.
This is the address
4416 Cather Ave 92122
DSchoen on December 12, 2008 at 2:33 AM
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