Two Navy crew members who died in an plane crash close to Mt. Rainier in Washington final week have been recognized as feminine aviators from California, together with one who participated within the first all-female pregame flyover eventually 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl.
Lt. Cmdr. Lyndsay “Miley” Evans and Lt. Serena “Dug” Wileman, each 31, have been the one aviators aboard a two-seat EA-18G Growler warfare plane that crashed throughout a routine coaching flight on Oct. 15, the Navy introduced in a information launch Monday.
The standing of the 2 pair remained unsure for a number of days as search and rescue crews scoured the distant wilderness close to Mt. Rainier. The wreckage web site was reported to be in steep and closely wooded terrain at an altitude of 6,000 ft.
“Extra than simply names and ranks, they have been function fashions, trailblazers, and girls whose affect touched numerous individuals on the flight deck and effectively past,” Navy officers stated in a press release.
Evans and Wileman have been a part of the Digital Assault Squadron 130 stationed at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington. Their squadron was known as “Zappers.”
On Sunday, the Navy introduced that the lacking crew members had died within the crash, however didn’t launch their names till Monday.
“It’s with a heavy coronary heart that we share the lack of two beloved Zappers,” Cmdr. Timothy Warburton, commanding officer of the squadron, stated in a press release. “Our precedence proper now could be caring for the households of our fallen aviators, and guaranteeing the well-being of our Sailors and the Growler group. We’re grateful for the continued teamwork to securely recuperate the deceased.”
The reason for the crash stays beneath investigation.
Evans, a naval flight officer, grew up in Palmdale and attended USC. A veteran of two sea excursions, based on the Navy, Evans’s participation within the flyover forward of the 2023 Tremendous Bowl marked the fiftieth anniversary of ladies flying within the Navy.
“I joined the Navy to serve my nation,” Evans stated in a press release on the time. “Serving within the Navy means being a part of one thing larger than your self.”
Her expertise as a pilot and teacher earned her the title of Growler teacher of the 12 months, based on the Navy.
Each Wileman and Evans participated in fight operations in Yemen in 2023 and 2024. They spent 9 months aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower as a part of the Service Air Wing 3 (or CVW-3) and working largely from the Crimson Sea.
Each earned a number of decorations for his or her fight performances.
Wileman was simply beginning her Navy profession, based on officers.
“Exterior the cockpit, Wileman made everybody smile,” officers with Naval Air Station Whidbey Island stated. “She would brighten up any room and was recognized for her real care and compassion for these round her. She at all times introduced a way of calm, within the good occasions and dangerous, whether or not it was by a joke, a recreation of cribbage, or an enormous bear hug for a Sailor in want of 1.”
She was married, having met her husband, Brandon, throughout flight college, based on the Navy. Her hometown in California was not supplied.
Capt. Marvin Scott, commander of CVW-3 who served with each girls in coaching and fight operations, described Evans and Wileman as tenacious and excellent for his or her contributions and constructive vitality they dropped at the Navy.
“Each member of the CVW-3 Battle Axe Group is heartbroken on the lack of these distinctive warriors; Dug and Miley really symbolize the most effective that Naval Aviation has to supply, and they’ll completely be missed,” Scott stated in a press release.
