Sacramento native among crew members in jet crash near Washington's Mount Rainier
WASHINGTON - Two crew members who died when a U.S. Navy jet crashed near Mount Rainier in Washington state have been identified.
The Navy said Monday afternoon that both are from California: Lieutenant Commander Lyndsay P. Evans, a naval flight officer from Palmdale, and Lieutenant Serena N. Wileman, a naval aviator from Sacramento. Evans and Wileman were both 31 years old.
Wileman attended the University of California, Irvine and moved to San Diego after college to be near the multiple military bases, according to Jill Meyers, Wileman's long-time mentor and friend. Meyers spoke to CBS Sacramento about the passion she saw in the naval aviator even before she was in the cockpit.
The two met in 2016 through the Women in Aviation International (WAI). The group is the largest nonprofit in the world dedicated to increasing the number of women in all areas of aviation, according to the mission statement.
"I immediately introduced her to a couple of female naval aviators. They were mostly assigned to bases in a local area and flew the F18. One of them actually was an instructor, and F18 instructor as a woman," Meyers said.
She said Wileman had a goal and a dream to fly. When Wileman was accepted by the Navy, Meyers said, she was on a fast track to success.
"She was first or second in her class, I think every single phase, which got her the ability to get assigned to the fighter jet category," Meyers said.
Wileman's determination and skill earned her a coveted assignment to fly the EA-18G Growler aircraft, a state-of-the-art electronic warfare and attack plane equipped with advanced sensors and reconnaissance equipment.
Evans and Wileman had recently returned from a deployment with their squadron, Electronic Attack Squadron 130, also known as "Zappers," with whom they spent nine months at sea as a part of Carrier Air Wing Three aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
They were operating from the Red Sea, according to a Navy statement, and were involved in "the most dynamic combat action in defense of the strike group and freedom of navigation since World War II."
"So they were the closest to the difficulties going on in the Middle East. Serena and, interestingly, other female pilots, which is unusual, were flying actual combat missions, and you know, saving lives," said Meyers, "They were both — I use this word a lot, but you know — complete rock stars in aviation, and not just that. They were military pilots, but what they achieved as pilots, in general, was just miraculous."
Wileman inspires future naval aviators
The overall percentage of women in the sea service is around 20%, but the percentage of female Navy pilots is somewhere between 7% and 12% depending on the year, according to Commander Zach Harrell, spokesman for the commander of Naval Air Forces, in a 2023 interview with Military.com.
Meyers said female aviators are aware of the statistics and there is a tight-knit push to grow the number of female pilots.
"That's really what a lot of us are about and what Serena was definitely about. So I'm sure there's a long line of young girls out there who may actually enter aviation because of Serena Wileman," Meyers said.
The sentiment was echoed by Wileman herself in a 2020 feature in a Navy publication.
The article, which highlights a virtual field trip for a Texas elementary school class, shows Wileman in action.
It was Wileman, in her own words, that captured why she made it a point to introduce others to the career of naval aviation:
"When I was young, I saw the Blue Angels and thought they were superheroes, but I never thought could do that. I just didn't know that you could fly jets for the Navy as a career. No one told me. I didn't learn till later that anyone can be a pilot if they're willing to put in the work. I'm so excited to have had this opportunity to talk to the kids, because maybe they'll remember that. Who knows? We might see these kids in the fleet down the road."
"Any chance she could get to sit in front of little girls, she would take it," Meyers said. "Seeing a woman in a flight suit made a significant impact. It opened their eyes to the possibilities."
This dedication to mentorship is a hallmark of Wileman's legacy, as she aimed to inspire young girls to consider careers in aviation, a field where women have historically been underrepresented.