LOS ANGELES — The pilot was on a training flight from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln when he was forced to shut down one engine because of mechanical trouble.

The hobbled jet was told to bypass a coastal Navy base that offered an approach over water and to instead fly inland over San Diego to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

When the plane's second engine failed short of the runway, he broke into violent cursing as he attempted to get control of the plane.

"I knew I had to get out. I pulled the nose up a little bit and then reached down between my legs for the ejection handle," Neubauer wrote.

"The canopy blew and then after what seemed like an eternity I was ejected," the statement said. Dangling below his parachute, he looked down to trace the jet's plunge into a community of homes.

"It had gone right into a house. I screamed in horror when I realized what had just happened," Neubauer wrote. Eight people were killed and two homes destroyed.

The statement, released to The Associated Press under federal open-records law, represents the pilot's first public comment on what happened that afternoon.

The military authorities blamed the crash mechanical problems and a string of bad decisions that led Neubauer to bypass a potentially safe landing at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado.

Previously released recordings of conversations between federal air controllers and the pilot show he was repeatedly offered a chance to land the plane at the Navy base, which sits at the tip of a peninsula with a flight path over San Diego Bay.Related Stories

Nearing Miramar, "I felt the aircraft performance degrade and noticed the engine noise winding down. ... I moved the throttle forward as I cursed and noticed it didn't do anything," he wrote.

The cursing was verified by air-traffic controllers.

Nearing Miramar, "I felt the aircraft performance degrade and noticed the engine noise winding down. ... I moved the throttle forward as I cursed and noticed it didn't do anything," he wrote.

Moments later he ejected.

The statement was part of a previously unreleased report on the crash by military investigators.

The report includes statements of military officials who agreed with the decision to land at Miramar after the pilot reported trouble. Their names are redacted.

One said it didn't seem unusual to land at Miramar because the jet appeared to have enough fuel to fly the additional 10 miles beyond North Island and it was a "familiar field" to the pilot. This person said the "ease of maintenance and the ability of the pilot to get into a spare (jet)" also weighed in favor of Miramar.

Another described approving plans to land at Miramar, thinking the jet had enough fuel.

"This was not to facilitate the ease of maintenance, but rather to permit him an approach to a familiar field — indeed his HOME field," the official wrote. The statement read that Miramar also had a longer runway.

The investigators' report criticized the pilot for failing to more forcefully challenge the decision to fly inland to Miramar.

COMMENTARY:

This pilot had other opportunities to land safely and refused. He left the plane in a housing area. He could have flown it as far as he could seeking an uninhabited area, or the close-by ocean. (San Diege)

This pilot seems to have made far more errors in judgment than the 'Praying Pilot' of the previous article.

Pilot One

Prrayed while crashing, and with no evidence of a single error, was sentenced to 10 years for praying during crash!

Pilot Two

Cursed while crashing, with evidence of a 'string of error', was "scolded" by his superiors - not even fined - much less criminally charged.

It seems quite obvious the modern world prefers cursing pilots to praying pilots!