In air refueling is one of many ways to earn your hazard/flight pay. Number of things that can go south if your not paying attention or if some system or hardware fails at the wrong time.
Agree. Tense moments when flying close to another aircraft, especially when re-fueling, have to make a conscience decision to “relax” so no complacency.
I used to ride in the back of the EC-130H Compass Call platform. We had a lot of electrical equipment back there. When we went for aerial refueling, all the equipment was shut down. One crew had a leak in the piping that dumped a couple of inches worth of fuel in the cargo bay of the 130. Had to hand pump to open the ramp and angle the plane nose up to dump the fuel out the back. That was, of course, after the emergency break-away.
Thankfully, none of my flight ever had a refueling mishap. We did practice the emergency break away several times, though. That’s enough to make ya puke.
Yup. Read an article last week about a navy f18 near Japan refueling from a tanker and the hose to the basket disengaged and beat the A/C and canopy. Shattered the canopy. Pilot got cold real quick had to drop down to 10K and divert Japan.
The basket was still stuck on the recepticle.
$#!t happens.