His job in the Navy was to load bombs and missiles on aircraft on the flight deck.
I still doubt this as the real cause, because i believe as soon as the wiring was attached to the missile it should have fired.
There were two safeguards designed to prevent accidental missile firings: a pin, which, when inserted, physically broke the firing circuit, and there was the pigtail, which connected the firing circuit to the missile pod. Until the plane was on the catapult ready to take off, the pin was supposed to be inserted, and the pigtail left disconnected. Once the plane was on the catapult, an accidentally launched missile would have zoomed down the deck and crashed into the sea harmlessly.
Two things happened, disabling both safeguards:
The pilot of the plane which launched the missile testified that the firing occurred at the moment he switched his plane from external to internal power.