P-8A recovered, Oil, and Gold Bars
As someone observed in the comments a few days back, the Navy managed to get its wannabe flying boat P8A out of the waters off Kaneohe Bay
The plane was floated from where it had come to rest using inflatable airbags and then slowly rolled – sometimes at a pace of just five feet per hour – across those bags back onto the runway.
The jet, which belongs to the Navy’s Patrol Squadron Four (VP-4) based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington State, ran off the runway at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay last month.
Work has been ongoing since the incident occurred to assess the state of the P-8A and mitigate impacts to the local environment, including coral that was damaged when the jet entered the water. After overshooting the runway, the aircraft continued for a short distance and pivoted to the left before coming to a stop.
The retrieval effort then involved rolling the aircraft along a row of airbags, first back into alignment with the runway and then into position to get it back ashore, as can be seen in the graphic shown at the process conference below. The Drive
When you were kids, they told you the big stones used in the Pyramids or Stonehenge were probably moved by rollers? Same sort of thing with airbags. Pretty ingenious, given the fragile coral they were rolling it across. Worth reading.
Remember when PINO Joe sold off a solid chunk of the US Strategic Oil Reserve to “drive down” oil prices when the market was expressing alarm after Russia rolled further into Ukraine.
… the Energy Department can purchase to about 3 million barrels a month, Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk said.
“That is the physical limit of how much we can buy back,” Turk said in a Bloomberg TV interview on the sidelines of the COP28 climate conference. “We hope we can bring more capacity on line at these price levels to buy as much as we can to refill. We will buy back as much as we possibly can, but there are some physical constraints.”
First they couldn’t replace it due to high oil prices. (Oil has been falling for the last two months per the article.) Then they claimed the oil had to meet certain unspecified new standards before it could be purchased. And now, the same people who should have prepped to buy whenever that became possible, shut down the available capacity for maintenance. Been how long since Russia rolled in, and NOW they are doing maintenance? We were able to ship 180 million barrels OUT fast enough, but now can barely manage to refill 2% of it a month?
And as long as we have moved fully into “their story STINKS” territory, Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is getting investigated for bribery, and four suspicious kilogram gold bars were found at his house.
According to a sprawling indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors in September, Menendez and his wife allegedly played a role in a years-long bribery scheme that involved the Egyptian government and local businessmen including Fred Daibes, a wealthy New Jersey real estate developer. Prosecutors revealed they retrieved multiple gold bars from Menendez’s home which were allegedly used as payment in the scheme.
At least four of the gold bars discovered by investigators can be linked to Daibes, both because of their unique engraved serial numbers and thanks to court documents related to a 2013 robbery which Daibes was a victim of, an NBC New York investigation revealed Monday. In November 2013, four assailants beat and robbed Daibes at gunpoint in his Edgewater, New Jersey, apartment, stealing 22 gold bars, jewelry and cash. Fox
Not a good crime in which to be implicated. To give an idea of the trouble Menendez is in – even Mr. Hoodie Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) is calling for him to be thrown out.
Speaking of the junior senator from the Keystone State, https://babylonbee.com/news/weird-man-becomes-more-conservative-as-he-regains-brain-function.
“The circumstances surrounding the mishap remain under investigation.”
Should be a pretty short investigation. They landed long, and ran out of runway during rollout. Pilot error. Case closed.
Curious if it will ever fly again. The aircraft, not the pilot.
And if so who would fly with it. The aircraft, not the pilot.
I lost a friend a few years back when the Maule Rocket he was flying decided to fold at the wing root. Investigation revealed that the aircraft had once been partially soaked with seawater, and was (a) not properly inspected, (b) not properly repaired, and (c) not properly reported or documented by the previous owner. So personally, I’m not willing to enter any aircraft that’s been dunked in the surf.
I had an AN/TSC-93B TACSAT shelter on the pier in Kismayo in 1993, and you could hear that thing corrode from salt spray on a quiet day. I unscrewed the filter inlet one day to clean it, gave it a yank and came away with the inlet assembly, filter, and about 6 inches of exterior wall.
No damage history or airframe repair in log book, never picked up at annual inspection or prebuy inspection? I’m very sorry about your friend it would appear that several people failed him miserably. I’m always sceptical when buying an aircraft, no matter how pretty it looks I always assume I’m looking at a potential nightmare. I get the most thorough prebuy from a trusted A/P and I participate in the inspection and log book audit and still at the end of the day it’s a crap shoot but spar corrosion that severe should have been picked up by a thorough inspection. A tragedy that should have never happened.
It made no sense to me, I think there was a pile of fraud involved before he got the aircraft. He was an awesome pilot, could fly anything and everything. Flew Cobras in Vietnam, he was our local FBO at one time and flight instructor. The truly shitty part was his wife watched him crash. He had a contract with game and fish to track radio-collared wildlife, always made a pass over his house on his way to wherever. Came by the house, low level, wife waved from the porch. He pulled up, not even an aggressive maneuver, well within normal flight parameters of the aircraft, and it just folded up.
Tragic story about your friend.I’ve looked at beautiful airplanes that after a thorough inspection were grounded by the inspecting I/A talk about pissed off sellers! But bottom line is it’s not a car and your life and the lives of your passengers are dependent upon the people that maintain and inspect aircraft, a good pilot should always be involved in the maintenance process but at the end of the day it’s the A/P I/A that’s certifies airworthiness. I’m a piper owner and as you probably know wing spar issues have caused several fatal accidents and two A/Ds fortunately mine is well below the factored hours but I still make sure the spar and attachment points are visually inspected every annual. Losing a wing is a terrifying thought.
You can’t just pull over and call AAA if your aircraft breaks.
Maybe. Most likely even. I’ll wait for the results of the investigation.
Yup
Funny story, when I was in BDE S3 we had a young SSG who went off to Recruiter School and got kicked back after a tattoo screening. Seems he had a rather large swastika tattoo, which despite his claims of it being a religious symbol, was not exactly impressive to USAREC. He was trying to fight it, and a lot of guys that knew him vouched for him, including the one broken-down SSG that did orders and had earned a Soldier’s Medal in a previous unit.
When I joined in 2001, visible tattoos were almost unknown. We had a guy at 30th AG on Sand Hill who was waiting for the back of his neck to heal from a tattoo removal, as that was a thing at the time. You could join, but they took your tattoo if it was visible in long-sleeve Class B’s. By the late-2000s, tattoos had become part of the culture, despite SMA Chandler waging war on them. I became the exception, having only two tattoos easily hidden by a t-shirt. One thing I hated were the leg tattoos on female Soldiers. I can stare at a man all day without question, but at, say, Drill Sergeant School, where I’m in formation marching behind an attractive female with calf tattoos, I have to force myself to stay eyes forward. Trying to see what the heck she has tattooed on her legs might lead to allegations of ogling. 🫣
Along the lines of allegations of ogling; the uniform design approvers should rethink the placement of rank insignia on utility uniforms. I swear that Navy Captain wanted me keel-hauled for looking at the eagle insignia placed in the middle of her ample bosom.
“Z” had “US” tattooed inside his lower lip.
-so- glad I was able to conspire with the Chaplain to get him reassigned to a place that would utilize his quirks, instead of chapter him.
He landed, oh rather well, indeed.
Urban legend says the Nazis’ swastikas bent down to the right, the sanskrit/Indian ones to the left. In reality the latter often went right as well. I have several volumes of Mr. Kipling’s works right at a century old with right-hand swastikas on the spines. And despite his views on Ireland, Kipling was no Nazi.
I can believe they are just now getting around to maintenance on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve “tanks”… you ever tried to get a government contract through and paid for, lately?
I’d love to do the Genghis Khan punishment, melt the gold and pour it down the throats of the two in the pic above.
Notice how the photo has a “left” bent to it.
Welp, whatever floats your boat…or in this case…your plane. Diversity is our strength? Seems like there was an article before on this aircraft having the most diverse crew in Naval Aviation History…that has now gone *poof*. I don’t think that the damage to this aircraft will buff right out. At least nobody was hurt too bad and the plane didn’t sink as deep as (BEAT) Navy’s chances of winning an upcoming ball game when the Middies face The Black Knights of (GO) Army.
We see more and more evidence, daily, on the shear stupidity and ineffectual, crooked politicians that have been (s)elected to destroy this country. If one has not already done so, one needs to…Prepare
“Diversity is our strength.” That, or a variation of it, has been the mantra of the Army for over a decade now. Until recently, every PR campaign, commercial, and so on has made it clear that we are all on equal footings as Soldiers. We are all equal, which is one thing I liked about the Army, but we can’t gloss over the fact that White men comprise the bulk of the fighting forces. The best qualified should crew equipment (including planes), lead military personnel, and otherwise serve our nation. I get that not everyone is going to be the “best”, but generally speaking, if you have someone a little weaker in certain areas than other people, you team them up. See “Joker” and “Pyle” from Full Metal Jacket. Think of some command teams where the CO, XO, and CSM/1SG complement each other, along with their subordinate leaders. An Infantry Company is only as strong as its weakest elements. If you have one platoon where the 2LT PL is still a frat boy, the PSG made rank in under eight years and still thinks he’s one of the “boys”, and the squad leaders are all E-5s and junior E-6s lacking experience, then the next platoon over, with the 15-year PSG, senior 1LT with a deployment, and seasoned SSGs running all four squads is going to be either a) overwhelmed by demands, or b) set up for failure during a real-world mission where they need to work with the inexperienced platoon. The same goes for all of these “diverse” individuals. A little spread here and there may not hurt. Take people out of the comfort zones and make them work with people they may not otherwise work with. An NCO who spent his formative years in 75th RGR before going CAG and then getting assigned as CSM for a Leg Infantry BDE may not adapt too well (seen it firsthand). But declaring 3-15 IN a First by assigning a female CSM with a transgender HHC 1SG and three diverse female 1SGs in the line companies is probably not going to help… Read more »
The touted all female P-8 crew was on a VP-45 aircraft based at NAS Jax, in Florida. This bird is from NAS Whidbey Island’s VP-4 in Washington State.
Roger that, Big Dog. Maybe this linked article is where all the rumor mill got it started. There was another article, with pictures right after the P8 took a bath that showed a “different type” of diversity, that is the one that went *poof*. Still digging for the screen shot that one of the blogs had saved. That pic showed the aircraft and the crew. Much respect for the crews of these type aircraft, flying into harms way with no protection on board (do they have a CAP when on a mission?). Pilot error, lack of training, piss poor maintenance, or just bad luck in sketchy weather? Either way, I wouldn’t want to be a crewmember in this aircraft if and when it is “repaired”. Might be a widget or two that should have been replaced that didn’t get replaced for…reasons.
“TINS… there I was, at Angels 28 with nothing between me and the sea but NFO Goodbody…and my torp failed to arm…”
https://www.nairaland.com/7918414/all-female-pilot-crew-crashed-u.s
New squadron patch.
TS amphib research.
Love it. I wonder what kind of response one would get if forwarded on to the squadron in question 🤔
Bird bath.
IIRC the very first time I heard of Epstein Island was the “first” time Menendez was in investigated by the ethics cmte. This was probably 15-20 years back.
Anyone else recall or am I making shit up as I age?
We put on a constituent lunch for him at Bagram while I was there and (due to an ongoing scandal) no one wanted to show up. A bigwig COL/O6 on the staff there wasn’t happy.
Him: “This is awful!”
Me: “You’re telling me, sir– know what he did?”
Him: “No.”
Me: “Underage Dominican prostitutes– news stories said, anyway.”
Him: “Oh, sh*t.”
We ended-up trying to get anybody passing by to attend. (Hey, you from New Jersey? Wanna be? Here, come meet your senator!) One of the passers-by asked “So, was she kinda cute or what?” of the guest of honor.
You can’t make this up.