Navy crash victims near Mount Rainier identified as 31-year-old pilots

Two women the U.S. Navy called role models and trailblazers were identified Monday as the aviators of an EA-18G Growler aircraft that crashed into a mountainside near Mount Rainier.

Lt. Cmdr. Lyndsay “Miley” Evans and Lt. Serena “Dug” Wileman were killed Oct. 15 while flying a training mission through the Cascade Mountains. Both women were from California and were 31.

They were based in Oak Harbor, Washington, on Whidbey Island as part of the Electronic Attack Squadron 130.

Searchers found the wreckage a day after the crash and scoured the area for signs of the women. They were declared dead on Sunday. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Cloudy weather and mountains complicated the search, and it took until Friday for search teams to reach the crash site at 6,000 feet on a mountainside without the use of a motor vehicle.

The two recently had returned from a nine-month deployment aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. Most of their time was spent in the volatile Red Sea area where military operations were conducted against the Houthi rebels based in Yemen. The Houthis have been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and have targeted ships and disrupted commerce in strategic waters.

Evans graduated from the University of Southern California before going to flight school and eventually becoming a Growler Tactics Instructor. She had enlisted in the Navy in 2010 and received her commission in 2014.

In a nod to her expertise and acknowledgment of women aviators in the Navy, Evans participated in the 2023 Super Bowl flyover marking 50 years of women flying in the Navy, according to the statement.

Wileman became commissioned in 2018 through Officer Candidate School and was at the beginning of her career after her combat experience against Houthi-controlled territories in Yemen.

The Navy release noted that Evans was especially close to her parents, and that Wileman met and married her husband, Brandon, during flight school.

They were friends and shared a love of their dogs.

“More than just names and ranks, they were role models, trailblazers and women whose influence touched countless people on the flight deck and well beyond,” according to a statement attributed to Team Whidbey.