Caption Needed!
Clever caption goes here......Do any of you have the actual story behind this photo? I'll bet it was exciting for the flight crew, to say the least!
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
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2008 Steel Challenge World Championships, Piru, California.
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20 Comments:
Aren't we supposed to be pointed the other way in vertical take-off mode?
Damiphino
"Just sit tight sir the tow truck is on the way."
"Please show your triple-A membership card to the truck driver."
Eddie
Are you sure the tag read "Drip Dry Only?"
Or the punch line of the old joke:
"Yeah, and it's deep too."
"The USS Enterprise testing a unique aircraft storage system designed to increase combat aircraft capacity by 70%."
"Somebody call Batman, his damn plane is sleeping under the elevator again."
"Hanging from the yardarm went out of vogue in the 19th century, but hanging from the flight deck was still considered an effective method of reprimanding unruly aircraft until it was deemed 'cruel and unusual' by the Navy Department in 1974."
A few more details and some conjecture:
It is a TF-9J "Cougar" Trainer. The squadron designation looks like VT-25 but I couldn't find anything about the squadron online except that it once existed. The TF-9J (originally designated the F9F-8T) was in service in the US Navy from 1957 to 1974
The ship was the USS Lexington (CV-16) which was a WWII era Aircraft carrier that was converted to a training ship (CVT)in 1969 and then an Auxiliary Aircraft Transport (AVT) in 1978.
Bassed on that info, this photo was probably taken between 1969 and 1974.
OK. On to speculation:
This aircraft is hanging by it's tailhook from what appears to be an elevator. The photo looks to have been taken from the sponson next to the hangar bay elevator door.
The canopy is open (not missing) and the seatbacks are visible so the pilots did not eject. This means that the aircraft did not go over the side during taxi, takeoff or landing. I see no broken or loose tiedown chains hanging which would be expected since 10 chains or more are used on an aircraft while on the elevator.
My guess would be this was a towing mishap. The towbar came off or broke while positioning the aircraft on the elevator. The brake rider didn't get the brakes mashed in time (which aren't very effective on a large aircraft anyway) and over she went.
Believe it or not, these types of things happen regularly on a flight deck at sea. Moving 80,000lb+ aircraft around on a very crowded, wet, pitching deck...often in bad weather or in the dark of night...is never a simple proposition, no matter how many times it's been done before.
I've got a story or two about the flight deck. One in particular relates to the subject of airplanes over the side. I'll send you a link when I get it up on my blog.
DAMN !!!
I'll never get those seats clean !!!
Merle
Phwew. That was close.
Oh S**T how are we going to explain this one?
No, you get out first!
Hey Marine, your one point stag is hung up backwards!
Trap wire - who needs a stinking trap wire?
CDR, SC, USN-Ret
At sea the rinse part of wash and rinse is just a quick dip .
"Missed it by that much ..."
I got my story up here
Sea Story
If anyone is interested.
"I know we're out of torpedoes, but this is ridiculous!"
"cold," and "deep."
I didn't know they drank like that to re-fuel
I don't wanna hear any smarty remarks about "air brakes!"
Brrrrrrrr!
The Good news is the tailhook worked.
The Bad news is the brake on the trap cable did not work.
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