As an admirer of the other aircraft historians hereabouts, I thought I’d make a few comments about a fairly recent event aboard the USS Dwight D Eisenhower aircraft carrier. As can be seen in this video , an E-2C Hawkeye (Airborne Early Warning) aircraft participating in carrier qualifications off the Virginia Capes in March, 2016, suffered a mishap that was, fortunately not fatal to the aircraft or its crew, but caused significant injury to at least 8 flight deck personnel and 2 unmanned aircraft.
This article provides an overview of the incident and the circumstances. To the uninitiated, the video may not be intuitive, so I will add a few expository comments.
The initial view is from the PLAT (Pilots Landing Aid Television) imbedded in the centerline of the carrier’s landing area. The second view is from a TV camera (there are several) monitoring flight deck activity from up on the carrier’s island structure. All aircraft carrier landings and flight deck activities are monitored thus, for a variety of training and safety reasons.
The E2C is one of the heavier aircraft on board (perhaps the heaviest in this generation), but as with a all carrier aircraft, landing weight is significantly less than mission take-off weight (and this particular aircraft had 3 crewmembers rather than a normal mission crew of 4).
There are 4 arresting wires (2” braided steel cables) numbered 1-4 from back to front. #3 is the target. This aircraft caught #4 (sometimes a cause for ready-room ribbing, but not the derision of a #1 wire).
Whenever arresting on an aircraft carrier it is SOP to go to 100% power (full throttle, though not afterburner (if equipped)) until stopped, and one receives a signal to throttle back. The primary reason is because of rare situations exactly like this, where the arresting gear or the tailhook fails. Otherwise, there is just not enough time for modern jet engines to spool up to attain flight thrust before you get wet. That SOP, plus superb airmanship, is what allowed this aircraft and crew to survive. And bear in mind, An E-2 crew does not have ejections seats.
It’s not always the wire itself that fails (nor was it in this case). Each wire has an independent engine below deck that provides the hydraulic damping to restrain the aircraft. In fact, in the two incidents like this I was tasked with investigating, the engine was the culprit, not the wire. Nonetheless, when there is a failure, there is always the risk (and usually the reality) that the wire comes loose, becoming a 2” steel whip, like your water hose with a sudden 140psi pressure behind it.
This brings me to my main thought, once I saw the crew survived. 8 sailors were injured in this incident by that wire, 1 apparently critically. If you want to envision the people working on an aircraft carrier flight deck, picture about 100 of your high school graduating class mixed in with a few college buddies and a few instructors. In my day, all male, but not any more. They are working harder, under more dangerous conditions, day and night, in pitching seas and routine 30-40 kt winds across the deck, and building character in the process, like American sailors always have.
So, spare a thought for those in the sick bay.
