McCain’s A-4 was the one that ate the Zuni that misfired. Thing went right into his fuel tank, which ruptured and ignited.
McCain stressed his bird, climbed out on it’s refueling probe and then jumped through the flames to get away. There was nothing else he could do. He didn’t cause the fire, just dealt with itbas best he could.
The reason he transferred off the Forrestal is simple to understand: the aft 1/3 of the ship was DESTROYED down to the waterline. The airwing (which is separate from the ship’s company) was transferred off while the ship went back to Norfolk to get rebuilt. There was no reason for the airwing to stay with the ship. He ended up going to Oriskany, from where he was shot down.
There’s a lot of stuff to despise McCain over, but his actions on Forrestal aren’t it. Calling those charges BS is an understatement ...
Some accounts say McCain’s plane was hit but it was the one next too him and that pilot died. Three major carrier fires Oriskany, Enterprise, and Forestall. All McCain could reasonably do was run. All hell was fixing to unleash and not even today’s shipboard fire fighting systems would have likely stopped the bombs from going off that followed.