Article

2003-09-12 Home Front

Broken wire sends jet into ocean, injuring 12

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Posted by Yosemite Sam 2003-09-12 10:24:38 AM|| || Front Page|| [4 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 "The snapping of the wire may have directly caused or led to some of the injuries"
Ya think? A 4 inch steel cable under tons of strain snapping and flailing around the deck like a angry snake? Lucky somebody didn't get cut in half.

Posted by Steve 2003-9-12 10:40:45 AM|| 2003-9-12 10:40:45 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 "Lucky somebody didn't get cut in half."
Yep

Posted by raptor 2003-9-12 11:34:35 AM|| 2003-9-12 11:34:35 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 I remember hearing somewhere that one navy synonym for "aircraft carrier" is "most dangerous five acres in the world."

It says something for our carrier crews that incidents like this are so rare.

Posted by Mike 2003-9-12 11:51:08 AM|| 2003-9-12 11:51:08 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 I think it is interesting that it happened at all. The catapults and cables follow very rigid inspection and use schedules. Did we overuse this cable due to the opstempo, or is manufacturing quality decreasing due to increased demand?

Posted by BossMan 2003-9-12 12:39:40 PM|| 2003-9-12 12:39:40 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Yeah, its a dangerous place alright. I spent 3 1/2 years on one. The cables are QA'd, and replaced on a schedule based on average wear and tear. However, there is no way that you can gauge the specific time that an individual cable will fail. There is too much individual difference in strain on each landing. That is why everyone stays WAY clear of them at all times.

Posted by Bill 2003-9-12 2:05:26 PM|| 2003-9-12 2:05:26 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 My older brother was a shooter on the Teddy Roosevelt. Dad says that he was looking the wrong direction and almost lost his head to a plane wing. He always liked the stupidly dangerrous jobs. He did another tour as a flight instructor. The only thing more dangerous than allowing an inexperienced pilot shuttle you around is to make that same mistake on a daily basis.

I made a 6 week Midshipman cruise on the Saratoga years ago. Never went on the flight deck, as the air intake on the A-7's made me nervous.

Posted by Super Hose 2003-9-12 2:27:30 PM|| 2003-9-12 2:27:30 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Never went on the flight deck, as the air intake on the A-7's made me nervous.

But those things looked really great with the blunt nose right above the intake. Like a flying truncheon with which to beat the enemy senseless. :)

Posted by Bomb-a-rama 2003-9-12 4:56:29 PM|| 2003-9-12 4:56:29 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 They looked like an aviation version of a great white shark.

I have never heard of an arresting wire failure. I know that they are disposed of over the side after a certin number of traps (I thought the number of was three.)

The Navy used to use a synthetic line for deck handling that was equally scarey. We had to see a film every year about the dangers of Synthetic Line Snapback. The line would snap under pressure and explode in the opposite direction of the tension. The flick showed where the kill zone of the line was. At the end of the flick the narrator was fianlly shown below the waist and of course being a victim of snapback had prosthetic legs. Kind of chilling and made you very careful on deck when lines were being handled.
The Navy has since moved to a different synthetic cord that has no snapback. When it parts it just falls directly on teh deck. Technology is a good thing.

Posted by Super Hose 2003-9-12 8:37:41 PM|| 2003-9-12 8:37:41 PM|| Front Page Top

09:12 Douglas De Bono
09:02 raptor
08:09 raptor
00:03 Not Mike Moore
00:02 Fred
23:56 Not Mike Moore
23:35 Not Mike Moore
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23:12 Paul
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23:02 Paul
23:00 Not Mike Moore
22:48 Paul
22:44 tu3031
22:15 Craig
21:58 Old Patriot
21:52 True German Ally
21:43 True German Ally
21:42 Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire
21:30 Old Patriot
21:28 Ernest Brown
21:26 Fred
21:05 Super Hose
20:58 Old Patriot