Posted on 07/09/2016 4:17:18 PM PDT by fella
Navy investigators blamed human error and an improperly programmed valve for a March incident in which eight sailors were injured when a cable used to catch a landing E-2C Hawkeye snapped on the flight deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Eight sailors suffered a variety of injuries, including a fractured ankle, wrist, pelvis and legs. One sailor received skull and facial fractures while another suffered a possible traumatic brain injury.
That’s horrible. No doubt that a snapped cable could severely injure or kill someone.
Naval pilots will always have my complete respect, especially considering night landings and these potential sketchy landings.
Confirmation bias.
WOW
A cable snap is a function of poor steering and landing angle. Is is the direct responsibility of ships Captain. We have no other factor to blame. ZERO. The issue is competence ,Pure and simple. Very sloppy .
I'm an old Army guy who knows nothing about the Navy.However,I *do* enjoy watching youtube videos of carrier flight deck operations.I though that on landing you were supposed to be at,or near,full power in case you missed one of the cables (which,it would seem,can happen).
mega seat biter for the flight crew
Can't it be the result of poor maintenance? Or perhaps a cable delivered from the factory with a tiny,undetected flaw?
Brings that status, “Feet Wet”, to life!
Hi there shipmate. I was ships company. “E” division on the Coral Sea from 1963 to 1967. Two deployments to Viet Nam, eleven months in ‘66. We had completed the original seven month deployment and went to Yokusuka to meet the relieving carrier, but when we got there we were told the incoming carrier was not to relieve us but was an addition to the fleet. We were ordered back to Subic to pick up that which we had offloaded and go back on station.
This was the only time that I had seen bar girls not knowing a ship’s schedule. As soon as the ship tied up at Cubi I went ashore. As I was walking down the street outside the gate, one of the bar girls must have recognized me, she stopped me and asked “what is your ship?” I replied Coral Sea, and she laughed at me and said “Oh no, the Coral Sea has gone back to the States!”
I assured her that the ship was tied up at Cubi and she got a sudden panicked look on her face and turned and started running down the street shouting “the Coral Sea is here, the Coral Sea is here!” Thus to alert all the other girls that there was the sudden conflict of love interests in that there were too many boyfriends in town at the same time.
Yes, there was chaos the clubs that night, and many girls suddenly had to leave town to see a sick family member in their home province.
Lots of interesting memories. Many years I later worked at NCSP San Miguel as a civilian employee until Mt. Pinatubo forced us to abandon it.
Regards.
The two pilots obviously did a great job flying away. A jet in that instance probably would have been lost because they have ejection seats. If that had happened to me I would hope my RIO would have punched us out.
No other factor ehh?
Then how do you explain how there would have been no cable snap if they had hooked wires 1, 2 or 3?
I recall walking down the street after crossing Shit River and seeing a bar
window sign saying
Welcome USS Coral Sea-—which came in the next day.
Us Leatherheads marveled at how we knew nothing about ship movements but the bar owners and girls did.
Knew a swabby on a cargo ship based out of Naples who had an Italian
girlfriend. The gf’s roommate would tell him whenhe was going to sea.
PS, I reckon the bar owners had ready made signs for different ships.
Does not sound like that in this case. If, as they say, it was human error and a valve problem, what they mean is, the person in charge of setting the cable properly did not do so.
There is a person(s) below deck that are told the type of aircraft coming in to land, who then set the cable tension/response for that aircraft. Each plane has a different setting. The person below deck got the wrong aircraft info or had the right aircraft but set the cable improperly.
The “buck” stops with the command. Why do we shield this en competence? it is going to end abruptly
Hi Bandit,
Not to quibble because you obviously have experience, but I have seen F-4’s go to burner upon touchdown aboard the Coral Sea.
As we spent a lot of time on station, I did spend some time up on the buzzard’s roost. I recall a night recovery where an F-4 made a hard touchdown and damaged his port main gear. He didn’t have any land base that he could get to and didn’t want to punch out at night so he elected to come aboard. The barrier was rigged and raised. he touched down, caught a wire and hit the barrier. Went to burners when he touched down, and there he was! Port main gear collapsed, down on his port wing, ensnared in the barrier and both burners blasting away. He got the starboard engine shut down but had a bit of trouble with the port engine, still blasting away.
I was highly impressed by the EOD crew, immediately at the aircraft removing, by muscle power, the external missiles while the port burner was still blasting away. After a short while the port engine was shut down and nothing left to do but clean up the mess.
A good landing! Everyone walked away with no injuries.
Regards.
I thought the same thing, and I worked for several deployments on the flight deck. Of course, it could just be me, but it looked fast.
Not technically correct. They do NOT come in full throttle. They are often at very, very low throttle settings, but as soon as they hit the deck and should catch the cable, they do slam it to full power just in case they miss the cable so they can get airborne again.
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