S-3 Crashes near NAS Jax

[HooverPilot]

I transitioned out of the S-3 last Nov and hope that the press got this one wrong and two of my buddies are still alive, but I fear the worst. My prayers are with them.

As for the seats, when armed and in group, any front seat handle will eject all 4 seats occupied or not. There is no turning off the rear seats. The aircraft is always flown in the group eject mode so either of the front seat crew can eject all onboard. When strapping in/out, the seats are in the single mode which means a pulled handle on an armed seat will eject that seat only (this is the only mode for the rear 2 seats).

 

[SteveG75]

All or none makes more sense the way I see it. I've heard that the prowler does a 1 at a time staggered, but still all or none. What else do you do if your pilot goes unconcious and everyone else needs to punch out? Leave the poor bastard there? A toggle switch might be nice, but realistically its just one more thing that can go wrong (thought it was set the other way, etc) in an already bad situation.

Prowler has selectable command eject. With the handle in PILOT, all four seats go when the pilot pulls. With the handle in ECMO, all four seats go when the pilot OR ECMO1 pulls. The back seaters (ECMO's 2/3) can only eject themselves. The only time you fly with the command eject handle in PILOT (i.e. ECMO1 cannot execute command eject) is when you have a non-NATOPS qualified person in ECMO1's seat. 99.999% of the time this is only during RAG hops with a student ECMO(the other 0.001% is if CAG flys in the front).

When the seats in the Prolwer go out staggered from the time command eject is initiated:
ECMO3 - 0.0 sec delay (better be in a good body position)
ECMO2 - 0.4 sec delay
ECMO1 - 0.8 sec delay
PILOT - 1.2 sec delay

The delay is built into the seat so even if you eject via your own handle, you still have to wait. Theoretically, you could all eject separately. Backseaters by themselves, command eject handle to PILOT, ECMO1 pulls, then the pilot. However, if you do that the pilot still gets that nice 1.2 sec delay. That is why they get a bigger bonus.

Oh, and a pinned GRUEA-7 will not go if pinned but the other seats still have that built-in delay.

BTW: Intruders did not get command eject until ~1992. My first cruise, only 3 of 14 jets had command eject.

 

[MIDNJAC]

Prowler has selectable command eject. With the handle in PILOT, all four seats go when the pilot pulls. With the handle in ECMO, all four seats go when the pilot OR ECMO1 pulls. The back seaters (ECMO's 2/3) can only eject themselves. The only time you fly with the command eject handle in PILOT (i.e. ECMO1 cannot execute command eject) is when you have a non-NATOPS qualified person in ECMO1's seat. 99.999% of the time this is onnly during RAQ instructor hops (the other 0.001% is if CAG flys in the front).

When the seats in the Prolwer go out staggered from the time command eject is initiated:
ECMO3 - 0.0 sec delay (better be in a good body position)
ECMO2 - 0.4 sec delay
ECMO1 - 0.8 sec delay
PILOT - 1.2 sec delay

The delay is built into the seat so even if you eject via your own handle, you still have to wait. Theoretically, you could all eject separately. Backseaters by themselves, command eject handle to PILOT, ECMO1 pulls, then the pilot. However, if you do that the pilot still gets that nice 1.2 sec delay. That is why they get a bigger bonus.

Oh, and a pinned GRUEA-7 will not go if pinned but the other seats still have that built-in delay.

BTW: Intruders did not get command eject until ~1992. My first cruise, only 3 of 14 jets had command eject.

and don't forget the bailout option sir :icon_wink

 

[Punk]

PILOT - 1.2 sec delay

wonderful, I'll sit there and twiddle my thumbs while everyone else gets to safety

 

[Road Program]

This is really sad. I did some deployment time on the ship with the Maulers and spent some time briefing some crews and talking to them about random crap in their ready room. I can see their faces right now...not as well as someone who was actually IN the squadron, but you know what I mean. Prayers go out to all involved. I hope this was some bad reporting as already hypothesized.

 

[petescheu]

1.2 sec is a long freekin time in some situations...

 

[Brett327]

wonderful, I'll sit there and twiddle my thumbs while everyone else gets to safety

Yeah, with time compression it will seem like an hour, probably enough time to use the piss tube one last time.

Brett

 

[skidkid]

wonderful, I'll sit there and twiddle my thumbs while everyone else gets to safety

Uhh that is your job and sh!t. Price you pay for who you are and having controls. Ok now back to my world where everyone crashes together.

 

[Pugs]

Yep, the 1.2 is some time. We lost our jet in VAQ-141 Dec 31 1990, (first day of cruise and was going to be the first year we'd never lost a Prowler) when they parted a wire on the TR. "Oscar" was the pilot and as they went off the angle at about 35 knots and the nose dropped through he remembered three things. One was the whole canopy jumping as ECMO 1's seat went through it, two was the splash as the nose of the jet hit the water and three was a hand of god feeling as his seat fired and it felt like he was in a giant fist that shook him hard then threw him in the water. Everything, Seat, Chute , SEWARS, LPU worked as advertised and he looked up and the H-3 was right on top of him. Everyone got out just fine and was flying again within 48 hours. The most shaken was "Diceman" in ECMO two as it was his first trap ever.

Pugs

 

[Fly Navy]

Yep, the 1.2 is some time. We lost our jet in VAQ-141 Dec 31 1990, (first day of cruise and was going to be the first year we'd never lost a Prowler) when they parted a wire on the TR. "Oscar" was the pilot and as they went off the angle at about 35 knots and the nose dropped through he remembered three things. One was the whole canopy jumping as ECMO 1's seat went through it, two was the splash as the nose of the jet hit the water and three was a hand of god feeling as his seat fired and it felt like he was in a giant fist that shook him hard then threw him in the water. Everything, Seat, Chute , SEWARS, LPU worked as advertised and he looked up and the H-3 was right on top of him. Everyone got out just fine and was flying again within 48 hours. The most shaken was "Diceman" in ECMO two as it was his first trap ever.

Pugs

Great story. Thanks for posting.

 

[HAL Pilot]

Yep, the 1.2 is some time. We lost our jet in VAQ-141 Dec 31 1990, (first day of cruise and was going to be the first year we'd never lost a Prowler) when they parted a wire on the TR.....Pugs

Small world, I was the Conning Officer on TR when that happened.

I had a few memorable events while on the TR's bridge as either the Conning Officer or OOD. You were probably on board for most of them:
1. The EA-6B parting the wire.
2. Ramming a whale and having him stick on the bow. (we had to pry him off - I picked up the call sign of Ahab for a while from Snort).
3. USS Leyte Gulf fodding our flight deck with chaff during recovery the 1st or 2nd night of Desert Storm when she decided our returning aircraft were inbound missles.
4. FA-18 Rag CQ with a former A-7 driver and current FA-18 PXO who did an almost perfect loop off the cat and tried to spear the middle of the flight deck before ejecting (discussed at least a year ago on this board while examining the CVNs manueverability).
5. Watching a young Sailor get sucked into and crawl out of an A-6 intake (which now has video all over the internet).
6. Watching the COD swing its wing into another aircraft while the yellow shirt was frantically trying to get him to stop. The COD pilot blamed it on a slippery deck and a large heel while the ship turned. (We were going straight and the deck was level, the non-skid was kind of wore. He just wasn't paying attention. Our CO saw the whole thing and almost banned the guy from ever landing on TR again.)
7. Pushing a battle damaged A-6 over the side after he trapped.
8. Taking over the watching and getting to scream "all engines emergency back full" within 10 seconds of assuming while approaching the Suez Canal. Right as I relieved him, the off going OOD said "Oh yeah, we got this guy to starboard that I haven't figured out yet....." The other guy passed about 200 yards in front of us.

My guess is you were probably onboard for all but the FA-18.

End of thread jack.

 

[VarmintShooter]

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/092205/met_plane5p.shtml

 

[beau]

man this is getting bizarre!....if indeed they found the two back seats gone...but no front seat got out...or maybe it was an out of envolope situation....who knows? We will find out in due time....as for now...Prayers for the Family's.

 

[Fly Navy]

man this is getting bizarre!....if indeed they found the two back seats gone...but no front seat got out...or maybe it was an out of envolope situation....who knows? We will find out in due time....as for now...Prayers for the Family's.

Even if a seat is out of envelope, it's going to fire.

 

[Fly Navy]

I don't know what happened with the S-3, neither do any of us. So as far as what happened there, nothing can be explained as of yet.