I see your diagram, but you fail to take into account that it was windy that day, and the exhaust drifted from McCain’s engine to the missile that McCain indirectly but maliciously touched off.
See my post about the wind involvement of McCain causing this tragedy, 2 or 3 posts above this one.
Good point. 28 knots is an average wind over deck for launch. Less than 25 is rare (harder cat shot, more stress on launch system). And the angles of the 40+ jets fuselages creates unpredictable wind vectors. So does the jet exhaust.
I’ve always wondered why the PLAT cameras all start the training tapes after the fire started.
The most popular training tape shows a fake orange (weapons test) F-4 Zuni shot (TRIAL BY FIRE at 3:22) and narrator acts like it was the fire starter.
Consider that it took the first 1935-vintage bomb 90 seconds in a jet fuel fire to cook off.
Even if McCain had nailed LT Barton's airplane with a proper wet start (not the wind-blown kind), it would not have caused the missile to launch.
In any case, at the time of the accident, McCain was number five or six in line for the catapult.