Holy cr#p. One wing... you couldn’t put that in a movie and make it believable. That pilot has got stones. I can’t even imagine. I get ginchy when I hear “funny noises” on choppers and planes.
I'd seen stills, but couldn't believe the thing could actually fly like that. Designing an aircraft to fly one-winged would certainly be possible, but one would have to get a lot of torque from control surfaces to compensate. I'm surprised the pilot didn't notice that something was severely unbalanced.
Also, what sort of braking mechanisms do landing cables use? I would think they'd have a drag mechanism to prevent them from ripping out the tailhook.