So that's the current 'official' story? I see that's the version the History Channel has picked up. Others (including, I understand, the official navy report) have said it was White's plane, not McCain's, that was hit.
Of course, given that the Navy originally discredited his story of engine failure on the football weekend crash, and then had to 'revise' the report to basically 'we couldn't find anything broken, so something unknown had to have broken', changes in the story shouldn't be a surprise.
Correct it was White’s plane, which was adjacent. Memory’s a bit off. Upon further checking, the Zuni went off due to a stray voltage (could be static). This would not have happened if the safety pin was removed. These have the red flags and when in place they break the circuit used for dropping/launching ordnance. The pin is only to be removed when the plane is on the cat, however sometimes in windy condition the pins fall out due to the flags. So the pins sometimes are removed ahead of time. A shortcut out of convenience which proved disastrous. I work in refineries where it is always told no shortcuts. There were a chain of events that made things progressively worse.
I am professionally familiar with safety incident studies, having dealt with Piper Alpha and BP Texas City.
The three other aircraft losses - McCain owns those.