Flight Deck Folly
Lots of fun until he’s standing in front of the XO, Safety Officer, Division Officer, Command Master Chief, Maintenance Master Chief, Division Chief, and Shop Leading Petty Officer. He’s fortunate that was an EA-6B; had it been an aircraft with afterburners he’d be a crispy critter.
After the vivid learning experience with all the players mentioned, I’ll bet he feels a bit crispy, anyway.
Thanks to thebesig for the video.
Category: Navy
Somewhere I encountered a Chief who said he had been blown overboard twice. He said that wasn’t the worse part…it was the ass chewing he got while he was being rescued. NB: I don’t know if he was telling a sea story or for real. He seemed a humble chap…for a Chief.
Did it start with “Listen Up This Ain’t No Shit”?
A true Sea Story is automatically presumed to be, err, enhanced, by the teller.
“Prowler”-bee a good idea to check ones undershorts for recently deposited deposits after that experience.
Ho-Lee-Phaque!!
(Nice touch with the hands-up touch down signal).
Stay Army! Stay away from Navy! (grin)
Fortunately, the flight deck had recently been properly swabbed and was not covered with aviation grease. He might have slid further if the deck hadn’t been spanking clean!
The flight deck is covered with a layer of very rough non-skid material.
After sliding along the flight deck as he did, he’d probably have suffered some serious/painful skin abrasions.
I’ve knelt on that shit before to check safety/firefighting equipment and even though it was only for a moment my knees felt it for days.
“The flight deck is covered with a layer of very rough non-skid material.”
Sure nuff is. It’s a bear to scrub out when you’re trying to debride injuries.
There’s de-icers on the flight deck, but sometimes it just gets too cold for them to work. I saw an F-14 skitter off into the catwalk due to ice and get stuck by the nose gear. It was on taxi to the bow cats and the pilot full throttled in the hopes he would gain flight before he hit the water. He punched out and ended up getting hung up and dangling off the bow. They pulled him up and he was shaken but mostly uninjured.
Balls of steel and brains of mush plane captain jumped into the aircraft that was still full throttle in lawn dart position in the catwalk and shut it down.
It’s an interesting work environment.
“It’s an interesting work environment.”
Nicely worded. My compliments, sir.
Okay. someone ‘splain this one to me. The video is quick to run. In the first frame, he appears to be signaling and, thereafter, he’s rolling and tumbling. He nailed the landing and, had it not been for the Russian judge, would have won. What egg-zactly happened here?
No tiedown on the guy.
Penalty, and the Russian judge saw it, too.
It’s called jet blast- the jet’s exhaust- and it’s very powerful, especially at launch when the birds are at full power. Squidly here got caught in it when the bird launched, and went for a little ride.
It gets real when the birds are on deck and turning to get where they need to be. Even at low power they can send one for a ride, and in the wrong place over you go for a 60′ drop to the water.
What I was asking was not clear. Was the Flying Wallenda where he was supposed to be, doing what he was supposed to be doing and, if so, what went wrong–who screwed up? Clearly he could not be seen from the cockpit so who was his signal for? Was he unseen by someone else who gave the pilot the go sign?
Black and white, so I can’t tell the color of his jersey. By his position I would think he’s a ‘green shirt’ or one of the catapult and arresting gear crew. His signal was to the Shooter, or Catapult Officer that all was clear on his side.
Yes, he’s out of position, and went for a ride when the jet blast hit him.
Better?
Edit- with better resolution, he’s a white shirt, or Safety Observer. Ironic.
Yes.
Looks like a squadron troubleshooter signaling that final safety checks are complete/good to go just prior to launch.
Please see my post below.
Thanks for the explanation. Us dirt grubbers are usually pretty ignorant when it comes to nautical stuff.
If you look at the guy opposite him, he ducks down, this guy was still upright so he caught the jet blast and couldn’t hold onto the tiedown cleet.
This stunt isn’t funny or cute. Anyone who thinks so has never seen a needless/preventable fatality on the flight deck.
This is how people get killed or horribly maimed during flight deck operations. As AW1Ed has said here numerous times, NATOPS is written in blood, and this fool almost added to that.
This guy was a dumbass, and what happened here appears to be intentional. He’s also very lucky that he wasn’t seriously injured (see how close he came to being blown into the edge of that raised JBD).
Looks like he was a squadron troubleshooter giving a “thumbs up” after conducting final safety checks on the aircraft just prior to launch. There’s absolutely no reason why he should have been in that close to the aircraft when the cat fired; he should have been further out to the starboard side over by the foul line (take a look at the proper position of the other troubleshooter giving a “thumbs up” on the port side of the aircraft). I’m guessing that the Shooter signaling to launch the aircraft couldn’t see how close in he was due to his position behind the starboard main mount and the centerline ECM pod.
This was a huge safety failure on so many levels that I won’t bother to list all of them here. Suffice to say that any of the flight deck safety observers on the starboard side should have called for an immediate suspend when they saw where this imbecile had placed himself prior to launch, but apparently no one did. What an appalling shit show.
I’m betting that CAG and the Air Boss took a giant dump all over that VAQ squadron after this foolishness. And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that Sailor’s troubleshooter quals were revoked and he was sent to work in the mess deck scullery for the rest of the deployment. No more flight deck pay, either.
Forgot CAG, Air Boss and Mini Air Boss, thanks. Yeah, no doubt this stunt garnered a lot of attention, all self-inflicted.
3/10/MED/b
Check email and get back to me.
Mick, do the flight deck folks come from the ship complement or the squadron? Army guy curiosity. Tnx.
Both.
Aircraft type/model/series Plane Captains, Avionicsmen, etc. come from the squadrons.
Yellow Shirts, Grapes (Aviation Fuels), Blue Shirts (chocks & chains), etc. are ship’s company.
Wouldn’t anybody on that side of the aircraft be in the same disciplinary crosshairs? It looked to me like there were several guys with a clear view of the dumbass. I’m as knowledgeable about flight deck operations as I am about brain surgery, but one would think anybody on the flight deck should be able to get somebody’s attention and stop a launch for a major safety issue like this.
Of course, this was the Shop LPO’s error. Don’t ask how I know this.
That actually explains a lot. In my archaic experience, you never wanted to be on watch with an LPO standing their monthly “insert watchstation” watch to maintain their qual status. With the exception of one person that I can think of, they also got put in charge of leading the response teams rather than filling the watchbill during ORSE.
Trust me, I hated having to stand EO/AEA for proficiency.
More complete version of the fu$$-up here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbzCh3FFg74
I was assigned as the Nuke to our Safety Dept toward the end of our ’90 WestPac. This was incredibly unsat. Strip him of all his quals and start over from scratch. Don’t care if he was senior-in-rate qualed and it FU the watchbill.
Afterwards he approaches several personnel standing to the right, rear of the aircraft. None are giving him a high five or acting up as if it is a great adventure. This appears to have been amusing only to the idiot who almost lost his life. Totally unsat and this guy is a moron. And lucky.
Looks like he’s wearing Khakis, so I imagine he’s a Safety Chief or Officer, beginning the chewing of ass.
Interesting stuff. People don’t realize how dangerous a flight deck, or flight line for that matter, is. We used to guard two engine nuc bombers but they never started the engines. If they ever had to, or if we were patrolling one of the revetments and flight operations were under way, we knew enough to not stand or park behind them. This sailor is lucky to be alive and he may have copped a plea had he not got up and held his hands up like he accomplished something.
This is the other end of the equation.https://youtu.be/AF55oyAJDBk
Whew! I don’t know what job that guy had going in, but I bet he was a brown shirt when they pulled him out.
Wonder when this happened. Navy replaced EA-6Bs in 2015. Marines still have them, but this is a Navy jet.
Video says USS Kitty Hawk, decommissioned on 31 January 2009.
Was stationed at PACOM HQs at Camp Smith in HI in summer 2008 when KITTY HAWK came into port at Pearl while participating in RIMPAC. KITTY HAWK was supposed to have been already retired by then, but a serious fire on GEORGE WASHINGTON delayed her arrival to 7th Fleet, so K.H. filled in for her at RIMPAC. It was a glorious sight to see K.H. In action one final time before the old lady retired to the scrapyard…
As you swabbies, and especially the Naval Aviators, pointed out; this was one very, very lucky dumbass. To me, this wasn’t a close call accident, this was close to full rutabaga stupid.
On any job site, but in particular a flight deck, 100 things can happen and 96 of those things aren’t good.
Darwin Award runner-up?
Dishonorable Mention.
3/10/MED/b
While stationed at Luke AFB, Az one day we were doing a launch on F-4’s. It is normal to duck and cross from one side of the jet to the other during the launch. The guy at the jet next to me, for some reason, stood up while right behind the two running engines and, you guessed it, went flying just like the guy in the video. He also got an instant sunburn that hurt for a couple weeks. I had to tell my pilots to give me a minute till I stopped laughing.
There must have been some choice emanating from the flight boss.
I wanted to write:
There must have been some choice words emanating from the Air Boss.
Sheesh! Midwatches!
As mad as he probably was, I think the emanations alone would have gotten the message across.
Comments on NEC338x’s youtube state this was the last launch of Kitty Hawk’s deployment, so spirits were high. Not that its an excuse for stupid and dangerous behavior, and I’m sure CAG had VAQ CO on toast for breakfast. As that rolls down-hill, it gets bigger and worse. Guess who is in the valley?
“Chief, I just can’t think of enough things to tell them not to do. Purposely getting in the jet blast of a launching EA-6B, really? I have to tell the troops not to do that?”
Doesn’t matter what the response to that was, after the Chief was done with his new chew toy the only possible reply is, “Aye aye, Chief.”
Good times.
As a young IDC my brother could scarcely contain his excitement at sewing some sailors knee back together. He sent several photos of the process photos under the caption of “horse play leads to sick bay”.
I no longer recall what the guys were doing when the incident occurred but lesson in the story is that you are not likely to skid or slip on a flight deck.
IDCs have a great sense of humor! (to my estimation)
We have the keys to the drugs…everything’s funnier when ya have those keys.