Think you had a harried day at work?

[jmichna]

F/A-18 Cable Break

You think you had a harried day at work? I received the following email & video, forwarded by a friend who is a Captain, USN retired:

This will bring back some nightmares, perhaps (attached video).
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F18cablebreak.wmv
A similar event:
I was parked in the six-pack on Ike circa 1982 off the coast of Egypt, when my wingman broke the 3-wire (F-14). The purchase cable broke port side about twelve feet outside of the swaged fitting that attaches to the Cross Deck Pendant (CDP).

As the CDP played through his hook, as he continued down the deck, the swaged fitting hung up briefly in his hook, stretching the remaining wire until it broke. A length of cable with the fitting attached flew over the heads of the de-arming crew (and others) near Cat 1 JBD, but the stretching killed the energy of the rest of the wire. It snapped back and broke the fuel hose that was plugged into my airplane. It only scratched up the guy standing there, though.

Unfortunately, the ordeal wasn't over.

The crew ejected off the angle, but the loss of all that weight, and the fact that the pilot had thrown it into Zone 5 A/B and it was still staging through about Zone 2 when they left, caused the nose to come back up. I said, "Uh, oh" and told my RIO to strap back in (I could see him in the mirrors, and he was unstrapped-I can't eject without taking him with me). We watched as the airplane, without the crew, went straight up over the ship, through the break pattern altitude, where two A-6's in formation dodged it, then it flipped over on its back, and pointed straight at the ship, starting from near zero airspeed, gear/flaps/hook down, no canopy, armed missiles onboard, in full burner.

I swear it was pointed right at the top of my canopy. I was afraid to eject because I might go right into it; I was afraid to get out of the airplane I was in because there was going to be one helluva fire ball outside-my plane was in the middle of a big puddle of fuel already; and I was afraid to just sit there. Didn't know whether to **** or go blind, as they say.

Then we could see the nose start to move off us as it gained airspeed. It looked like it was going to spear the ship right into Wardroom 3, but it rolled slightly at the last second and missed the ship by less than a wingspan, abeam the Cat 1 JBD. Missed the catwalk probably 30 feet or less.

Nobody on board was hurt.

I had been successful at quitting smoking up 'til then. It took me four more years to quit for good. I was Senior Member of the Mishap Board.
Micro

[Godless Gun Guy]

I'm glad my job is easy! Very little chance of being blown up or smashed up!

Thanks for your service!

[steveperry]

"Now set River City 3"

[DeadEye-Want2B]

Glad you are hear........Thnx for your service.
Capt. USAF ATC IP '69-'75 here.

[DanTheEldest]

Wow.

I'm a little confused, though; I thought that when a jet trapped the pilot went to full power in case of a bolter or a malfunction like this. I expected to see burners out the back of the jet, but never did. Good on him for punching out, but maybe somebody familiar with naval aviation can shed some light on this.

[community]

wow. will never complain again. be happy.

[coldsolderjoint]

Originally Posted by DanTheEldest

Wow.

I'm a little confused, though; I thought that when a jet trapped the pilot went to full power in case of a bolter or a malfunction like this. I expected to see burners out the back of the jet, but never did. Good on him for punching out, but maybe somebody familiar with naval aviation can shed some light on this.

I'm not a navy pilot.. but I would say he was low and slow.. very close to stall speed. No usable runway left.. the plane was going over the edge.. he was likely to not be able to climb out that fast. When your in the area of reverse command, you have to sacrifice altitude for speed. He had no altitude.

Other factors such as being low on fuel with no other landing options could have been present also.

[Groo]

I was under the impression the full power landing was in case they miss all the cables, they can try again. it looks like the cable did 90% of its job, then broke. there was no speed left to take off.

[DanTheEldest]

Originally Posted by Groo

I was under the impression the full power landing was in case they miss all the cables, they can try again. it looks like the cable did 90% of its job, then broke. there was no speed left to take off.

Yeah, I think you're right.

[Planedr]

Holy crap! That yellow shirt has got some moves! I hope the red shirt and green shirt guys it took out are ok.