As we reported here, an F-18 crashed into a residential neighborhood in San Diego, completely destroying one house and setting fire to several other homes.
It was revealed today that four people were killed in the crash. Dong Yun Yoon, a 37-year-old immigrant from South Korea, lost his wife, two children and mother-in-law when the F-18 destroyed his home. The pilot of the F-18 was on a training flight and lost control in mid-air. He ejected safely prior to the crash.
Yoon was interviewed today by the press and expressed sadness, but no anger. Regarding the pilot, Yoon said, “I pray for him not to suffer for this action. I know he’s one of our treasures for our country.”
Yoon’s wife, Young Mi, 37; his newborn daughter, Rachel; his mother-in-law, Suk Im Kim, 60, and his 15-month-old daughter, Grace, were killed as they sat inside their home. Yong Mi was a registered nurse who spoke broken English, but according to neighbors, did her best to befriend people.
Dong Yun Yoon, a store manager at a retail business, was away at work at the time of the crash. His mother-in-law had come from South Korea to help raise the children as Yong Mi continued to pursue her career as a nurse. The family attended the Korean United Methodist Church in San Diego, and were devout Christians according to their Reverend Kevin Lee.
It is difficult to imagine what this man must be going through at this time. His faith in God will perhaps will give him some strength in the coming days. At the press conference, he was surrounded by numerous church members who will hopefully help him through this time.
I, for one, am not a believer in karma because of incidents like this. Sometimes unbelievable tragedy just happens for no reason. A good Christian family that seemed to be following the path followed by immigrants since the beginning of America just got destroyed by an accident that must have had one in a billion odds. No matter what careful preparations you make in life, you cannot prepare for a jet crashing through your home in a freak accident.
My sympathies to this man. May he find happiness some day.
Video of Dong Yun Yoon
December 10th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Absolutely heartbreaking. What I find honorable, too, is he hasn’t filed lawsuits before the funerals, as seems to be the norm these days for everything from a paper cut to a freak accident.
I hope his heart can heal soon.
December 10th, 2008 at 9:32 am
What I find remarkable is that he is concerned about the Marine pilot. That is a sign of a true Christian that in the middle of the worst thing to happen to you, that you are concerned about someone other then yourself.
There was a time in America when that was the norm not the rarity it seems to be today.
May God bless all person involved in this.
December 10th, 2008 at 9:32 am
But Ignatz, you miss a very important point: there has to be some blame, somewhere. This was not an act of God. Military jets are not supposed to crash into populated areas killing a bunch of people. There is not one mention of this anywhere in your little spiel–zero, zip, nada. You obviously are willing to give the military a free pass on this. Well, I am not. Maybe they should have their training missions over unpopulated areas. Whatever. There should definitely be some sort of economic settlement with the survivors, but considering the track record of the military in incidents like this, don’t hold your breath. They got the same attitude that you do.
December 10th, 2008 at 10:41 am
I don’t think the pilot is to blame. The Pilot was diverted to Miramar, with 1 engine out. The pilot crashed just 2 miles short of the runway, and 3.31 miles from the water. When his second engine went out he was only able to divert from his flight path 1200ft. He was on final approach. The pilot stated he was aiming for a canyon, and he came up approx 300ft short of the canyon he was aiming for. Anyone who looks at the map can see he had nowhere to go. F18s and most jest land low and fast with power on, due to poor glide ratio. If a fighter jet looses power on final, the pilots options are minimal at best.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:12 am
this is what an american hero looks like. thank you ig – awesome post.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Edward,
You are the angerest person on this site. You want to blame somebody for everything. You hate military, the republicans, conservatives and probably everyone you come in contact with.
There are accident everyday where there is no blame. Sometimes bad thing just happen. This is one of those times. My brother-in-law was a Marine Pilot for 20 years and has flown all across this country in training missions. It is always a fear of this happening.
What amount of money would it take to make you feel better if you were in this man’s shoes? $1mil, $10mil, $50mil, $500mil.
There are no issues in life that money can make you feel better or make the issue go away. If you were a Christian you would understand how this husband and father feels.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:30 am
[...] you heard about Dong Yun Yoon? he’s the 37-year-old immigrant from south korea who lost his wife, two children and [...]
December 10th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Ed;
“Maybe they should have their training missions over unpopulated areas.”
Maybe people shouldnt build houses next to military installations, airports, factories, oceans, rivers, cliffs, volcanos and then b*tch when these things happen ?
Ya know Ed, the jets are designed to travel pretty far so ya gotta figure they’re going to come across a populated area eventually.
Mr. Yoon is an immigrant from South Korea and yet he shows more pride and respect for his country than some of the oldest moonbats like you have in their little finger.
I’m droppin a note in Gods box for Mr. Yoon.
Bless him and watch him.
December 10th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Edward, there is a time and a place to blame people. For one post, I just wanted to a honor a decent man. I guess decency is not very high on your list of priorities.
December 11th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
What a tragedy for Mr. Yoon! What a powerful Christian and patriotic statement he made to the reporters! This man is a HERO.
My son is also an F-18 pilot in training. It is a grueling training program. No doubt that the Marine did his best. I have the privelege to know many of these men. They are some of our nation’s best.
December 11th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
DJ,
Well put. It is brave men like your son that gives people like Edward the right to protest and put down the military.
He comes here and drops bombs and then like a coward, leaves. He is part of the “Whinners Generation”.
God Bless your son. Semper Fi
December 12th, 2008 at 8:32 am
I DID NOT PUT DOWN THE MILITARY! I am all for the military. I come from a military family. My newphew is (was) a pilot in the Air Force.
But the military can screw up, like anyone else. The military is not Gods. When someone screws up, they should not get a free pass. I am not talking about the pilot.
There needs to be an investigation. It should be made public. The reason this happened should be found. Some action should be taken to insure it never happens again. The families of the victims should be compenstaed. That’s all I said. And it seems pretty reasonable to me.
But what we have here is, everyone is praising this dude for being so forgiving, and now we are just going to forget about it and let it slide. When you forget about screw ups and let them slide, you are making a big, big mistake. You want to know awhy:
BECAUSE IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN! And next time it will probably be worse.
December 12th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Ed says this;
“but considering the track record of the military in incidents like this, don’t hold your breath. They got the same attitude that you do.”
After he says this;
“I DID NOT PUT DOWN THE MILITARY!”
Hmmm…
Could of fooled me.
Sounds like you’re saying that the military is negligent and willing to let innocents suffer.
What is the “track record” you speak of ?
It will happen again just as it does with commercial liners.
I’m sure that without the deaths of Yoons family the military is till not crazy about loosing multi million dollar aircrafts so theres no need to ask for an investigation as you can be guaranteed there always is one regardless of the situation.
I’ll bet money, with attitudes like yours, even when the results of the investigation are made public mentallities like yours will scream “cover up” ” conspiracy” or whatever contemptuous moonbat crap rolls off the top of your heads.
No one has said that Yon would not be compensated.
I’m sure no matter what the offer he’ll probably only worry about his home being compensated for.
I doubt any punitive figure for his family would interest him as it seems like this caliber of man would not want to put a dollar figure on his family.
It seems that your attitude seeks more to punish the military rather than to to help Yoon be at peace.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:38 am
We know there will be an investigation. And there should be. My point is don’t start pointing fingers until you know what and how this happens. There may be no one to blame.
This post was about Mr. Yoon and how he reacted to this. Not about Bush, Libby or the military covering up.
Ed you have a real grasp on the obvious.
December 13th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
the military is run by human beings who do very human things, usually under very tight tolerance standards till it gets to the fog of war. I am not clear why f18’s are flying right over residential homes in the first place given the noise and yes, rare risks involved. In iraq they have often strafed or flown low over civilian buildings in the battles with insurgents. I would hope they simply construct an artificial town for them to practice on way in the desert and take a simple unobstructed flight path to the airbase once they get near the towns. California sprawl makes that hard to do no doubt. I can say having stood a few hundred meters under a b2 hard banking with 2 f15’s underneath it so close I could see metal plating lines that these aircraft are real beasts and if one crashes you are going to have a true mess. The amount of fuel alone they are carrying is a true environmental hazard. Once I had 2 black b1’s simply descend out of the clouds above me at several hundred meters and take a low level run over an amusement park I was standing in which struck me as dicey.
December 16th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
This incident should not be forgotten. This incident should not just fade away into yesterday like some accident that happens everyday. It is because of this outlook that people have, that people are dying left and right with no one caring, until THEY themselves experience what this man experienced. I think the military should NEVER practice, train, or experiment on residential areas, NO MATTER WHAT THE REASON is. The fault that Mr. Yoon’s house was there is not his fault. He could not have known the danger that area had. Even if he did, because he’s a foreigner that imigrated to America, he would have NEVER thought that a MILITARY JET would ACCIDENTLY destroy and cripple his life. My thought, is WHY? Why in EVERYTHING IN THIS WORLD? WHY? Why the f*ck would you let military jets fly over residential areas? WHY? It’s just unbelievable. The thought of having an airplane fly over my neighborhood is scary enough. I cannot praise Mr. Yoon enough for having so much courage and compassion. If my family and all that I have strived to get got obliterated in one second like him, I don’t know what I could do. Not many people would. God Bless you.
December 17th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Daniel,
How can you use the f word and God in the same breath? Do you kiss your mother with that foul mouth.
Millions of planes fly over homes, schools, businesses, etc everyday without them falling from the sky. Cars and truck wreck everyday, but we don’t band them from driving near our homes and businesses. We even put our children on big yellow school buses every day. How scary is that?
Take a chill pill. You are way too worried.
This was an unforeseen tragic accident.
December 17th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I’m sorry if I insulted you. I didn’t mean to. I just can’t express the amazement. And I can’t believe you would just call this an unforeseen tragic accident. You sir, are an idoit. I hope you open your eyes. Please, don’t start insulting me, and telling me I’m worrying too much. I’m just reflecting on what I’ve read. You should rethink before you type. “This was an unforeseen accident”?! Can you not see that terror is unfolding in this world, faster than the speed of light. Like the Mumbai attack, terrorist attacks, murders everywhere, and these things. If you call ALL these things “unforeseen tragic accidents”, then you SHOULD and MUST revalue what’s important in this world. Take a chill pill…? Please don’t make such comments. I’m not angry, even if I sound like it to you. Reply back if you will not include the worthless trash talk you’ve said to me. Oh yeah, also: “You are way too worried.” George, I would rather be worried, than despaired if my family disappears in one morning.
December 17th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I’m sorry if I insulted you. I didn’t mean to. I just can’t express the amazement. And I can’t believe you would just call this an unforeseen tragic accident. You sir, are an idoit. I hope you open your eyes. Please, don’t start insulting me, and telling me I’m worrying too much. I’m just reflecting on what I’ve read. You should rethink before you type. “This was an unforeseen accident”?! Can you not see that terror is unfolding in this world, faster than the speed of light. Like the Mumbai attack, terrorist attacks, murders everywhere, and these things. If you call ALL these things “unforeseen tragic accidents”, then you SHOULD and MUST revalue what’s important in this world. Take a chill pill…? Please don’t make such comments. I’m not angry, even if I sound like it to you. Reply back if you will not include the worthless trash talk you’ve said to me. Oh yeah, also: “You are way too worried.” George, I would rather be worried, than despaired if my family disappears in one morning.
December 17th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Also, sorry to point this out. But the F word, is a word used to express feelings, even if it’s extreme to some people. I have not used God’s name in vain, nor have I used it with the F word.
December 26th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Just to let everyone know, there is charity opportunity for Dong Yun Yoon through the Beverly Hills Hi-Def Film Festival on Tuesday night, December 30th at 7:30pm at the Fine Arts Theater, 8556 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills. The movie Sounds will premiere at this time and the producers and other contributors are giving $1 per movie goer to Mr. Yoon. Tickets to watch the movie are around $10 each. To get more information you can go to their website at soundsthemovie.com. Have a happy new years!