[adamsjas]

Whoop there goes andother billion dollars.

Well at least the pilot is ok.

[billhilly]

As P. J. O'Rourke once wrote, "Now that is the way to waste government money."

See this great wmv of the USS Reagan:

http://www.nn.northropgrumman.com/media/video/reaganflightops.wmv

[dk/coro]

Cheap at half the price!!

To put things in perspective, on one night in the late fall of 1957, operating on the Arctic Circle in the Norwegian Sea, in one midnight deck cycle, the Saratoga lost 3 aircraft and pilots; the Essex, my carrier, lost 2 S-2's in a suspected mid-air, 120 miles from the ship, with the loss of both 4 man crews. (I was airborne at the time -- in an intense NATO war-game against the Russians.

Total Loss in one 4 hour ops cycle: 5 a/c and 11 aircrew fatalities.

Naval Air is alot safer these days; and dollars are relative...when one factors the cost of 9/11 against a realistic counter-terror posture.

[Terpfen]

Whoop there goes andother billion dollars.

$29 million, actually.