MASON CITY — A Navy pilot from Mason City was injured Monday night when the brakes apparently failed on his S-3B Viking airplane, causing it to veer off the flight deck of the Persian Gulf-based USS Constellation and plunge into 200 feet of water.
Lt. Ben Folkers, 28, a 1993 graduate of Mason City High School, sustained burns to his arm when he ejected from the plane. He and a crew member, Lt. Matt Wilder of St. Louis, Mo., were rescued by divers from a Navy search and rescue team.
Folkers is the son of Chip and Tucki Folkers of Mason City.
Chip Folkers said he received the call that all military parents dread, informing him his son had been injured, at about 9:30 p.m. Monday.
“The call came from the Naval Department in San Diego,” said Folkers, who is a former Navy pilot. “They said they wanted us to know that there had been an incident, that they really didn’t know too much about it, and that our son had been injured.
“Later, I got a call from his commanding officer telling us that he was out of the infirmary and that he had been treated for burns on his arm but there were no spinal injuries or anything like that.
“Then, about midnight, Ben called to let us know that he was all right. If you know Ben, you know there’s always a story to tell. By the time he called, I had seen reports about it on CNN and Fox and I told him that. And Ben said, ‘How did I look?’ That’s Ben. He wasn’t making light of the situation. He was trying to say something to make us feel better.”
The Navy said Tuesday Folkers’ aircraft made a successful landing on the carrier with the tailhook on the plane catching one of the arresting cables strung across the landing runway. Usually, according to the Navy, the plane would then taxi to the right and park in preparation for it being moved below deck on an elevator. Instead, the plane rolled to the left and dropped off the side of the ship. Part of it caught briefly in safety netting along the edge of the deck. That momentary delay gave the crew time to eject before the plane hit the water.
Folkers said his son has been flying missions over Iraq since Nov. 1. He said in typical situations, when the pilot and crew eject from a plane, the crew member goes first. Folkers’ crew member jumped. When Folkers ejected, his arm hit the ejection seat which apparently had caught fire, causing his injury.
“I’ve been trying to translate some of the things I’ve been hearing and trying to connect the dots,” said Chip Folkers. “These are old airplanes and they are flying constantly. This was definitely mechanical failure,” a fact the Navy confirmed Tuesday.
“He’ll be grounded for a while,” said Folkers. “When you’re in a plane on a flight deck about 100 feet high, and your brakes fail and you’re about to go into 200 feet of water, it causes some anxiety. It’s bound to shake you up a bit. So he won’t fly for a while. But he’s doing OK.
Folkers, who is city attorney for Mason City, had one more difficult task Monday night. His wife, an interim vice president at North Iowa Area Community College, was out of town. Folkers had to call her to inform her about their son. “She’s doing real well with it,” he said Tuesday.
Folkers said he and his wife have received periodic e-mails from Ben. In one of them, he mentioned that he hoped to be back for his Mason City High School 10-year class reunion this summer.