The Navy's inspector general says a female pilot was barred from landing on aircraft carriers not because of discrimination but because she made landings that "scared everyone but her."
Vice Adm. James Fitzgerald, the inspector general, also said in a report Tuesday that Lt. Carey Lohrenz did not receive inflated grades or any other preferential treatment allowing her to appear qualified when she wasn't.Fitzgerald's report dealt with charges by Lohrenz that she suffered discriminatory treatment by her commanders and colleagues in Carrier Air Wing 11 at Miramar Naval Air Station in California.
Lohrenz was grounded in 1995, but the Navy decided last month to allow her to fly land-based aircraft. However, she will not be allowed to pilot the F-14 Tomcat or other carrier-based planes.
Lohrenz contends her grounding resulted from a smear campaign to keep women from flying combat aircraft.
Fitzgerald's report did note that some men in her squadron "whose performance was as weak or weaker" than Lohrenz's were not subjected to the same review boards that she was. Instead, they were allowed to continue flying and to improve their performance.
Still, the inspector general found that Lohrenz's landings were "inherently unsafe" and should bar her from flying carrier jets.
Responding to allegations of preferential treatment in Loh-renz's training, Fitzgerald's report said: "We found no merit to these arguments; grades were not inflated and any extra attention given to these aviators exemplifies good leadership skills that recognize treating people as individuals rather than as group symbols, regardless of gender."
However, during her later flights on the carrier, the report said, Lohrenz displayed a "high and overpowered approach to the carrier that is characteristic of a classic ramp strike and which scared everyone but her."
The report found that Lohrenz repeatedly ignored counseling from landing officers who attempted to correct what they believed was "an extremely dangerous technique."