"You lost another plane?"
Posted on 07/10/2022 1:43:22 PM PDT by TigerClaws
No, it's; "Dude, where's my plane?"
Maybe that's true for people immersed in a giant system like the Navy, but many people have learned to look at forecasts and observe what is happening around them enough to avoid disasters like losing a fighter jet worth 10s of millions of dollars.
For example, pilots of small aircraft, helicopters, and all kinds of similar vehicles manage to make hundreds of thousands of flights without getting trapped by "unexpected" weather. Even in cases where the pilots get into trouble, or even get themselves killed, the weather is rarely "unexpected". When you read the NTSB reports the pilots knew about the weather, but chose to continue on into it, or flew into conditions they were not prepared for.
Any storm strong enough to cause issues for an aircraft carrier was definitely visible on radar before it arrived. It would only be "unexpected" if someone was not paying attention.
Here is publicly available radar imagery for Europe and the Mediterranean.
Would it be too hard for somebody on the ship to take a look at Accuweather?
LOL!!
“If the ship got hit by a roque wave I could see it possibly taking out an airplane. I was stationed on aircraft carrier many moons ago. The ship got caught in some bad seas. We didn’t lose any aircraft, but the catwalks and antennas near the bow were all mangled...”
I was an ET on an AFS. We were somewhere out in the middle of the Pacific near a tropical storm and got hit by a rogue wave. I had two big, heavy radios on my workbench. I was sitting on a stool taking a break. The ship very unexpectedly started listing. It kept going, and going, and going. I was thrown off the stool, through a door, and ended up 20 feet away against the bulkhead (somehow still standing). Both radios hit the deck. I was very lucky not to end up at Captain’s Mast for that as procedure was to tie the radios down while they were on the bench. That was a one time experience. Never happened again.
Hard duty . Short drive (elevator to hanger deck) but ... was the ejection seat on SAFE or ARMED?
My work space and berthing area were toward the center of the ship. I barely even noticed the rocking motion..
They chain them down with binders when they do attach them to the deck.
Serious question. Where was the weather person?
Something is wrong somewhere - there should always be Navy personnel watching weather conditions.
One would think from multiple locations.
I agree. In todays world not knowing the weather in the Med and taking appropriate action is not acceptable.
The other choice(s) is command break down or arrogance.
I would think the two greatest peacetime threats are navigation (obstacles and other traffic) and weather.
The ocean sea change occurs about at 4 pm each day as the wind changes direction.
LOL, on safe...:)
Having it armed would have been a keelhauling offense for someone like me!
"There are plenty of places to step on your dick. Especially when you have your head up your ass."
Absolutely. I remember watching one of our Corsairs being spotted one time, and they were backing it up to the edge of the flight deck. The ship took a roll, and when the Yellow Shirt driving the tractor put on his brakes, as you said...with the non-skid caked with rubber and grease, or just worn down, the tractor and plane continued towards the edge of the deck.
There was a hullabaloo of the tractor driver standing on his brakes, the Plane Captain standing on HIS brakes, and people with chocks trying to throw then under the wheels (back in the day when chocks were two big pieces of wood with a rope between them)
The tires bumped against that elevated rim around the flight deck, and I am certain that there were a few other people watching who wondered if the wheels would ride over it since my memory tells me it it was only 4-6” high.
Looks like this story is going to take some to develop. This one is likely to go down the FR memory hole before a cause is released.
6-8 months is my prediction.
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