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Snapback Cable Break Vid
- Thread starter Catmando
- Start date
Heres what it looked like afterward
...aywkubttod
n/a
Woah. Having never seen anything like that up close before now, I never realized how thick/heavy the wires were.
That vid made me a little sick -- it's one of the worst things that can happen on the flight deck ...
When WAVIN' ... I ALWAYS spun around and visually followed the bird into it's full-stop ... I NEVER took my eyes off the bird, for several reasons: hook-point separation, hook spit the wire, blown engine, blown tires, collapsed gear ... and, of course -- a broken wire.
You could see a broken wire 'happening' in the daytime and if you were 'lucky' you could jump it -- at night, you were at the mercy of less than perfect vision and hopefully, the people in the TOWER would call it -- otherwise, Mother Luck came in once again. A parted wire could (and did) take out most anything in it's path -- certainly anything made of bone, muscle, and blood was gone as the wire swept the deck. While WAVING, the NET was our 'escape plan' for ramp strikes, crashes, and wire separations as the windscreen on the PLATFORM probably would have not protected us. That's why making @ 1/2 of one cruise w/ an 8' hole in the net really chapped me ... in an emergency you go into the net ... and you're possibly 50' further down into the water.
One of our ship's company, one of the Flight Deck Handlers -- a really good guy; a STOOF-driver assigned to the ship as COD-driver when the ship 'owned' the COD -- got both of his legs chopped off just below the knees when a wire parted. This happened in the daytime -- he didn't watch the F-4 when it went past him and and the wire separated. He paid a heavy, heavy price for that omission.
A very, very bad day for everyone.
When WAVIN' ... I ALWAYS spun around and visually followed the bird into it's full-stop ... I NEVER took my eyes off the bird, for several reasons: hook-point separation, hook spit the wire, blown engine, blown tires, collapsed gear ... and, of course -- a broken wire.
You could see a broken wire 'happening' in the daytime and if you were 'lucky' you could jump it -- at night, you were at the mercy of less than perfect vision and hopefully, the people in the TOWER would call it -- otherwise, Mother Luck came in once again. A parted wire could (and did) take out most anything in it's path -- certainly anything made of bone, muscle, and blood was gone as the wire swept the deck. While WAVING, the NET was our 'escape plan' for ramp strikes, crashes, and wire separations as the windscreen on the PLATFORM probably would have not protected us. That's why making @ 1/2 of one cruise w/ an 8' hole in the net really chapped me ... in an emergency you go into the net ... and you're possibly 50' further down into the water.
One of our ship's company, one of the Flight Deck Handlers -- a really good guy; a STOOF-driver assigned to the ship as COD-driver when the ship 'owned' the COD -- got both of his legs chopped off just below the knees when a wire parted. This happened in the daytime -- he didn't watch the F-4 when it went past him and and the wire separated. He paid a heavy, heavy price for that omission.
A very, very bad day for everyone.
That was the first accident I avoided on the GW, I was taken off that VFA-106 CQ det at the last minute, Second was that fire the that happened on the 2007 ride taking the boat to san diego to relieve the Kitty hawk, flew home while in port at valparaiso chile a week before the ship caught fire. Btw my shop was above the lox farm next the L3 cable way the fire was traveling up.
NYYanks
Tweaking off my coffee
man thats insane. during one of our cruises on the Reagan, a buddy of mine from G-1 almost lost his head (literally) as a cable snapped during an UNREP while he was walking with a forklift in the 'bay. I've talked to some people who feel the Navy is the safest of all the branches and while we may not always be in direct combat with small arms, we have our own beasts that we have to contend with. I think the worst that I witnessed was a shipmate slip on a vertical ladder entering a magazine trunk. she fell from the entrance of the 2nd deck down to the fifth deck, where she slammed her face into a dog on the watertight hatch. She had to go through a few surgeries, but was told if it would have been two inches higher, she would have been dead.
Luckily I was never on the deck if and when the cable broke; I did have my head up my ass once and got knocked down when a Tomcat taxied over once. After that one time I always kept my head on a swivel and knew what was going on.
Yup.
Whenever I was on deck I would always make a real effort to stay in between planes when close to the foul line. The wire snapping was always in the back of my mind. That yellow shirt about jumped out of his flight deck boots.
My transit to and from my aircraft on the flight deck was often, the most dangerous sequence of my carrier aviation experience... including combat flights. I never liked being up there during flight ops any more than required. I still marvel at how all the "shirts" who spent 12 hours a day/night on the flight deck with its spinning props, sucking intakes, nasty WX, pitching deck, slippery deck, exhaust blasts, and the occasional rogue aircraft somehow survived. They deserve our greatest respect!
I had heard of flight deck people "jumping a cable" but had never seen it until this video. Incredible!
I don't recall of a cable ever snapping on any of my boats. But I remember a few other induced ... casualties. The worst was an A-6 whose right wheel fell off upon landing. The main-mount stub caught a wire, careening the A-6 into the parking pack forward on the bow. . . Eight aircraft destroyed, five crewmen killed, and 23 others very seriously injured, including our A-7 deplaning CAG, with double compound fractures of both legs.
We were watching the nightly movie when we saw on the Plat, and heard above our heads the sickening, screeching sound. Pretty ugly on the flight deck. Rapid response from the crash crew, and emergency MedEvac ashore saved a bunch of lives.
I had heard of flight deck people "jumping a cable" but had never seen it until this video. Incredible!
I don't recall of a cable ever snapping on any of my boats. But I remember a few other induced ... casualties. The worst was an A-6 whose right wheel fell off upon landing. The main-mount stub caught a wire, careening the A-6 into the parking pack forward on the bow. . . Eight aircraft destroyed, five crewmen killed, and 23 others very seriously injured, including our A-7 deplaning CAG, with double compound fractures of both legs.
We were watching the nightly movie when we saw on the Plat, and heard above our heads the sickening, screeching sound. Pretty ugly on the flight deck. Rapid response from the crash crew, and emergency MedEvac ashore saved a bunch of lives.
There should be no doubt in anyone's mind the dangers involved in being on the flight deck, and especially the destructive nature of a parted wire. On the Kitty a Rhino had a wire snap similar to this video. The wire basically cut the tail off of one of the helos sitting in the hole when it snapped back!
Missed that one by a couple months on my middie cruise in '05. Lots of stories still circulating though; pretty scary stuff. I was very happy to be in my jet and not out on the flight deck during my CQ det though.