fff
whats with the very happy?
...
one of the "airplanes" your gloating about.... claiming John McCain lost.. was one of the greatest tragedies in US navel history...
rumors start and are passed by idiot such as you every day.. but when it involves the death of over a hundred and thirty men, and is one of the worse fires in US navel history.. you should at least check you facts...
Did you know that John McCain was responsible for losing five (5) Navy airplanes, only one of them in combat? Why would the Navy let someone like that keep flying? Maybe because his dad and granddad were Admirals? This is certainly going to require more research. I'll try to keep you informed.![]()
whats with the very happy?
one of the "airplanes" your gloating about.... claiming John McCain lost.. was one of the greatest tragedies in US navel history...
About 10:50 (local time) on the 29th, while preparations for a second strike were being made near 19°9′5″N, 07°23′5″E, an unguided 5-inch Mk-32 "Zuni" rocket, one of four contained in a LAU-10 underwing rocket pod mounted on a F-4 Phantom II, was accidentally fired due to an electrical power surge during the switch from external power to internal power.
The rocket flew across the flight deck, striking a wing-mounted external fuel tank on an A-4 Skyhawk, either Aircraft No. 405 piloted by LCDR Fred D. White near No. 416 piloted by future Arizona Senator, LCDR John McCain, which were waiting to launch. The warhead's safety mechanism prevented it from detonating, but the impact tore the tank off the wing and ignited the resulting spray of pressurized fuel, causing an instantaneous conflagration. The heat caused additional fuel tanks to overheat, rupture and spew volatile jet fuel onto the deck, feeding the flames. Huge gusts of fire shot into the air along the flight deck, trapping pilots in their aircraft with no recourse but to escape through the flames or be incinerated in their cockpits. LCDR Fred D. White, waiting to launch in Aircraft No. 405, leaped out of his burning Skyhawk in an attempt to escape the inferno, but was killed instantly (along with many firefighters) by the cooking-off of the first bomb. LCDR Herbert A. Hope of VA-46 (and operations officer of CVW-17) jumped out of the cockpit of his Skyhawk between explosions, rolled off the flight deck and into the starboard man-overboard net. Making his way down below to the hangar deck, he gallantly took command of a firefighting team. "The port quarter of the flight deck where I was" he recalled, "is no longer there."With his aircraft surrounded by flames, McCain escaped by climbing out of the cockpit, walking down the nose and jumping off the refueling probe.
The impact of the Zuni on the initially-struck aircraft had also dislodged two of the 1000-lb bombs, which lay in the burning fuel. The fire teams chief, Gerald Farrier (without benefit of protective clothing) immediately drenched the bombs with a PKP fire extinguisher in an effort to knock down the fuel fire long enough to allow the pilots to escape. According to their training, the fire team normally had almost three minutes to reduce the temperature of the bombs to a safe level, but the chief did not realize the bombs were already critically close to cooking-off until one split open. The chief, knowing a lethal explosion was imminent, shouted for the fire team to withdraw but the bomb exploded seconds later.[citation needed]
One minute and 34 seconds after the impact and initial fire, and with the on-deck firefighting teams still actively battling the blaze, a 1000-lb. "Comp. B" bomb cooked off from the heat of the flames and exploded underneath McCain's plane; the force destroyed the aircraft (along with its remaining fuel and armament), blew a smoking crater in the armored flight deck, and sprayed the deck and crew with shrapnel and burning jet fuel. The explosion killed the entire on-deck firefighting contingent, with the exception of 3 men who managed to survive with critical injuries. The two bomb-laden A-4s in line ahead of McCain's were riddled with shrapnel from the explosion and engulfed in the flaming JP-5 jet fuel still spreading over the deck, causing more bombs to detonate and more fuel to spill.
Exhausted crewmembers in front of what remains of a row of F-4B Phantoms that were parked along the starboard stern quarter.
Exhausted crewmembers in front of what remains of a row of F-4B Phantoms that were parked along the starboard stern quarter.
Nine bomb explosions on the flight deck occurred, eight caused by the "Comp. B" bombs and the ninth occurred as a sympathetic detonation between an old bomb and a newer H6 bomb. The explosions tore large holes in the armored flight deck, causing flaming jet fuel to drain into the interior of the ship, including the living quarters directly underneath the flight deck, and the below-decks aircraft hangar.
rumors start and are passed by idiot such as you every day.. but when it involves the death of over a hundred and thirty men, and is one of the worse fires in US navel history.. you should at least check you facts...