Holy smoke!
peter.

Better job than a car wash.

Grizz

quote:

Originally posted by Grizzly Adams:
Better job than a car wash.

Grizz

The cockpit underwear probably needs a good wash also.

Wow! Just thinking of the consequences if they had gone in and been run over by the carrier. The guys on the flight deck obviously thought they had bought it.

quote:

Originally posted by Bobster:
Wow! Just thinking of the consequences if they had gone in and been run over by the carrier. The guys on the flight deck obviously thought they had bought it.

Unfortunately, I've seen it happen.

An S-2 (same type plane a/k/a Stoof) crashed on take-off from the Intrepid in the spring of 1970. I had caught a ride in it out to the carrier from Corpus Christi and trapped aboard. I'd just gotten out of the a/c, gone down the escalator and was walking across the hanger deck when I heard, "Aircraft in the water off the starboard side!". The bow cleaved the a/c in two with the tail going down the port side and the cockpit down the right, immediately under me.

From 20 feet above, I watched my two friends (the only occupants of the Stoof) try to get out of the overhead hatch... successfully, but they were drowned (or died from internal injuries) anyway. One body was never found and the other was recovered almost immediately by the plane guard 'copter.

The rescue swimmer on the plane guard was a brave man. after attaching the dead or dying pilot to the harness, he stayed in the water instead of awaiting another hoist for him. A hundred miles at sea and all by himself and before it was over, several miles behind the carrier. He spent probably 2 hours in the water. It was to no avail, but "so others may live".

When you're cooking out on Memorial Day, remember Lt(j.g.) Whitehead and LCDR Jasmine. Two good men. I'll drink a toast to them come Monday. Join me.

+1 Judge!

Judge,
My dad was an original crew member on the Intrepid.
Catapult operator 1943-46.

The text of that article says: "This time, however, a rogue wave surged just as the Tracker was taking off."

I wasn't there, but (assuming that was a catapult shot, not a deck run) watching that video, it was a bad cat shot. They launched him at the peak of the wave, not the trough. You want them staring at the sky at the end of the cat, not the water. Occasionally, the swells will head fake you and instead of the bow coming up fully to the same previous level, it will rise only a little bit and come back down into a trough.

Only a S-2/C-1's radial engines could survive that wall of water and spray. Jets or turboprops would have been snuffed out.

That's a GREAT website!! Thanks for posting.
I will share the Tracker launch with a few buddies...one a former Navy Tracker jockey...this will get his attention!!
Cheers,