Posted on 03/31/2011 8:18:53 AM PDT by newzjunkey
Ten sailors were injured Wednesday when an F/A-18C Hornet suffered a catastrophic engine failure and caught fire as a pilot was preparing to take off from the carrier John C. Stennis about 100 miles off the coast of San Diego, the Navy said.
None of the injuries is life-threatening... The pilot, who is with a squadron from Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, was alone in the jet. He was unhurt...
The injured sailors were working on the flight deck when the incident occurred about 2:50 p.m. Pilots were training for takeoffs and landings at the time. The sailors who were injured were involved in the launch and recovery of the jets involved in the training, he said.
The jet was lined up getting ready to take off and was on the catapult when the engine malfunction and fire occurred, Kakiel said. The fire was quickly extinguished.
There was no major damage to the carrier, but there was significant damage to the plane, he said...
(Excerpt) Read more at signonsandiego.com ...
Sounds like the engine FODed right before the cat stroke. When an engine goes like that you don’t want to be anywhere near the plane of the turbine blades when they start to exit the fuselage.
Prayers for a speedy recovery, and I’ll look for a video of the incident from the PLAT tape....
My brother is on the Stennis. Hoping to hear from him soon.
Looks like a well-trained Crash and Salvage team got to earn their pay for the day.
My son is red shirt shiny pants on the Truman (aka, ABH in Crash & Salvage) Thanks for the pic.
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