After Navy Lieutenant Kara Hultgreen, one of the first female fighter pilots, lost her life while attempting to land her plane on an aircraft carrier off the coast of San Diego, the Navy publicly blamed mechanical problems for the accident, a conclusion that was trumpeted by Congresswoman Pat Schroeder and columnist Ellen Goodman. Goodman wrote: "So it was the engine after all. Not the pilot. Lieut. Kara Hultgreen did not die on the later of political correctness or reverse discrimination."

But in fact, two formal investigations and a confidential internal Mishap Investigation Report primarily cited "multiple instances of pilot error. The reports cited Hultgreen's badly overshot landing approach, her excessive overcorrection and then her failure to follow the standard, designated procedures for recovering from a single-engine landing emergency," which resulted in her ejecting directly into the ocean.

Tragically, Hultgreen had been allowed to fly despite previously failing the carrier landing phase of her training, recording seven crashes in combat conditions, a record that would have grounded any male pilot. Apparently aware of pressures to promote her regardless of merit, Hultgreen had also appealed to Rear Admiral Robert Hickey on behalf of female naval aviators, saying, "Guys like you have to make sure there's only one standard. If people let me slide through on a lower standard, it's my life on the line. I could get killed."

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