Semper Fi forever my brothers!
Wow! That thing just sank like a rock!
Tragic.
Lord have Mercy!
For the want of 3 feet or so, were lives lost.
I read and re-read the accounts and still come up with that one simple, yet deadly, conclusion — the pilot didn’t account for the moving deck.
I am an Milcraft aviation affectionado, not an expert. My opinion has no weight. I understand the drill — red hot in, red hot out, simulating a hot zone extraction.
There is a fantastic and riveting YT series (3 - 10+ minute episodes) — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gGMI8d3vLs of how difficult it is for Navy F-18s to land on a pitching deck. These guys (the pilots) are the Iron Men of Iron Men and were crapping their pants. After seeing them touch and go so many times, your heart is in your throat and when the first bird FINALLY caught the wire I jumped and screamed like a school girl. And that continues until the last bird (getting low on fuel and light) finally catches the wire.
I note all that to say this pilot just didn’t adjust — he hit what he saw, not what was to be in a few seconds. A very human reaction where the conditions called for the superhuman.
God bless and keep the families of the fallen from this tragic accident.
Semper Fi!
Drowning isn’t a good way to go but going down fast in such a manner is far worse since the chopper is sinking so fast that many didn’t have time to equalize pressure, their eardrums ruptured and in coping with the pain, what chance they might have had of escaping were lost.
It was posted yesterday as well so I’ll read it tomorrow when it’s posted again.
You're welcome for the gif.
I remember during the last Cobra Gold I was involved in (2000 I think), a 46 got a rear landing gear caught in the flight deck netting of an LSD. This time the gear broke off but now the problem was where was it going to land lopsided. It wasn’t going to be back on a ship if they didn’t have to. Fortunately Utapao air base was not far away so they took it there.