Both engines reportedly failed prior to crash of fighter

Fourth victim found in rubble at Calif. site

Officials searched debris yesterday near the remains of an F/A-18D fighter jet that crashed in the University City neighborhood of San Diego on Monday. The plane destroyed two houses and killed four members of a family. Several other houses were damaged. (Fred Greaves/Reuters)

SAN DIEGO - Both engines of a military jet fighter failed before the aircraft crashed and burned in a residential area, killing four people on the ground as it destroyed two houses, a congressional aide said yesterday.

Investigators found the remains of a fourth person in the rubble, a child 15 months old. Neighbors were in shock at the tragedy that befell the child's family Monday, hours after the father kissed his wife and baby goodbye in the driveway.

The twin-engine F/A-18D Hornet went down about 2 miles from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

No official initial finding of the cause of the crash was given, but a congressional aide who had been briefed on the crash said the pilot was trying to land at Miramar after his right engine malfunctioned. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not public.

While the pilot was on final approach to the runway, the aircraft lost thrust from its left engine, and the pilot ejected, the aide said yesterday.

The pilot ended up suspended by his parachute in a tree. He was being treated at a hospital.

Four people - a mother, her two young children, and their grandmother - were killed in one house. One other home was destroyed, and three were damaged.

Fire Department spokesman Maurice Luque identified the child found yesterday as 15-month-old Grace Yoon.

The family's pastor, the Rev. Kevin Lee of the Korean United Methodist Church, identified the other victims as Young Mi Yoon, Grace's mother, who was in her mid-30s; her 2-month-old daughter, Rachel; and her mother, Suk Im Kim, who had recently arrived from South Korea to help care for her daughter's newborn.

Neighbors said the family of Korean immigrants moved into the area about three months ago. Resident Choko McConnell, 85, a widow who lives down the street, said she often saw the grandmother pushing a child in a stroller. "I cried all night," McConnell said. "A family perished, a young family."

Michael Rose, 44, said he often spoke with the family and had seen the father bid his wife and infant goodbye just hours before the crash.

"I thought, what a beautiful sight. And then later in the day, they were gone," Rose said.

Military aircraft frequently streak over the neighborhood, 2 miles from the base, but residents said the plane that crashed was flying extremely low.

The pilot was in stable condition at a Navy hospital, said First Lieutenant Katheryn Putnam, a Miramar spokeswoman. He had been returning from training on the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast, she said.

Investigators will review information from a flight data recorder. There was no indication the pilot was using alcohol or drugs, Putnam said.

Dawn Lyons spoke to the pilot just after he landed in the tree.

"I saw an incredibly composed person," Lyons said. "He didn't have any scrapes or bruises. He was very lucid."

Representative Duncan Hunter, who represents part of San Diego, requested that the Marine Corps provide maintenance records of the jet fighter to determine whether any other aircraft might have mechanical problems.