We had two Flight deck crashes I remember. The first was a Tomcat that during night ops came in low and the landing gear popped the round down. The pilot hit starboard burner to steer it off the angle and jettisoned out. The made it out OK. A bunch of VIP's were on the Bridge SECNAV, CNO, etc. The second was a S-3 again at night that came in high and caught number 4 wire It went over the side and dangled. The crew attempted jettison and they shot out one into the hull of the ship the other across the surface of the water. We also lost an ABH during a re-spot on the hanger deck. They were moving the plane and one of the guys carrying the chalks got ran over.
It seemed like every time we deployed we lost a few persons to accidents and one to natural causes. As morbid as it may sound they were taken to the aft walk in coolers on the fourth deck. We had to post a watch on the cooler gauges until the deceased was flown off.
What really surprised me was in Gulf War 2 carriers were deploying to the IO without any loss of life. Back in the mid to late 70's you knew there was going to be some losses especially in the month of ops off GITMO and usually some on the MED or WESTPAC.
Yeah. We lost a guy or two here and there. We had one guy who got sucked into a Tomcat, didn’t die but was a quad for life. We had another guy who jumped overboard while transiting the Straits of Messina. And so on.
I loved A-6 Intruders. They just seemed like a badass plane. And were they ever loud! I remember the first time I got to stand in the catwalk along the waist cat when they shot one off...I watched an A7 go off, nobody ducked. Then a Tomcat went off, nobody ducked. So when they shot the A6 off, I didn’t duck.
But everyone else did.
Heh, turned my flight deck helmet sideways on my head so my nose was in one ear protector!