I thought the same thing...but we are assuming the New York Times quoted him accurately in the first place.
I found a more complete version of the C.O.'s comment:
"For some unknown reason, a plane parked near the carriers island, midway up the 1,045-foot flight deck, experienced an extreme wet start. This malfunction, comparable to what happens when a cigarette lighter is ignited after having been filled too full, occurs about once a week on attack carriers, but almost never so severely as it did yesterday.
A thick tongue of flame lashed backward from the parked jet, igniting a missile on one of the dozen or so planes parked near the fantail, their engines turning over in readiness for a strike launching scheduled for 11 A.M.
The rocket shot across the deck, Captain Beling said, and by a quirk of fate smashed into a fuel tank under a plane on the port side.