The flight deck video shows that an air-to-air missile from another aircraft on the ship started the fire. The video is posted on the Wikipedia page for the Forrestal fire. McCain’s plane was at the edge of the flight deck with no other planes behind it.
That is not what this video is about.
Posted at the risk of beating a dead horse. When I began there were 30 comments, there are now over sixty.
McCain is not a saint, and destroyed some Navy Aircraft, but he had NOTHING to do with the cause of the Forrestal fire. He was in an aircraft preparing for Takeoff and was very nearly killed in the inferno. The pilot in the plane next to McCain didn’t make it. As to traitorous activity while a prisoner of war, none of us were in the Hanoi Hilton.
One of the important issues learned from the war and POW status especially in POW status in North Vietnam was everyone has a breaking point, everyone, and when you break, you are broken. Be very careful what POW you label with traitor. Congress itself is more traitorous than a broken POW. That said, McCain’s actions Congressional and political following his Naval service are far more damaging to this country than anything he did during the Vietnam War IMHO.
TRUE. That is my understanding of the Forrestal incident. Young officer McCain was scrambling for his life, as were other pilots in line to take off.
Many genuine ground crew heroes disappeared in the blink of an eye as they struggled to contain the incident and cool the ordnance.