A4 pilots have said even with no afterburner one can still wet start an A4.
The flight deck arrangement sketch claimed McCain’s A4 tail was pointed to sea and was on starboard across from the F4 that set off the zuni missile. But this is not ***conclusive*** evidence because it ignores that McCain could very well have been in a launch position with his tail pointed towards the F4.
I do not believe there is conclusive evidence on either side of the allegation. What I do believe is there is a preponderance of the evidence to conclude that McCain was more likely to have pulled such as antic based on well-documented and self-admitted confessions of wreckless behavior over other pilot performance incidents.
So if I am a member of a virtual jury of public opinion, I say McCain was more likely to have been a causal element in the Forrestal tragedy that not based on similar behavior and character issues on related incidents.
When the missile launched McCain jumped out and escaped likely to a catwalk on the 03 level. About that time the General Alarm for General Quarters would have been sounded as well. Thus McCain would report to assigned station.
When fires happen on a carrier especially major ones an official investigation follows. That means crew members being questioned by what was N.I.S. at that time. About 30 persons on the Bridge at three separate spaces including flighteck OPs {Air Boss}, navigation bridge {The Captain. navigator, Officer of the Watch, Bosun of the Watch, then on the Flag Bridge the Admiral and his staff all watching. Possibly some signalmen as well. Oh yea there is also Vultures Row where a person could go up on the Island and watch flight ops without the Air Boss screaming get off the deck.
On the flight deck there would be about 50-100 men around or near the planes back aft where this happened as witnesses including plane spotters, AVORD Team, Launch control, the start up crews, likely Plane Captain who does pre-flight inspections for readiness etc. IOW this conspiracy would have to be quite large LOL.
The spotting would in fact be conclusive evidence as the spotting could easilly be verified by eye witnesses and camera footage. In other words McCain could not just say well I'm going first etc.
Footage of the fire before it happened, during the fire, and after, has been seen by hundreds of thousands of sailors and Marines. Gee you'd think one would catch it /sarcasm. So have you seen the footage shown in fire fighting training?