Navy Aircraft Landing Accident

Back on July 23 I wrote a piece on navy deployment and in that piece I wrote about a pilot’s problems with landing and not catching the arresting wire. A friend sent me this short video of a navy E-2C landing on the USS Eisenhower in March of this year. This is actual footage shot from the flight deck cameras. The arresting wire snaps and the plane goes over the edge of the deck. Had it not been a turbo-prop with a huge wingspan I do not think the pilot and crew would have been able to make the maneuver you will see in the video. The flight deck cameras see everything, some are low to see the plane’s approach and some are mounted high up on the island superstructure so they see the plane’s recovery much faster than anyone on the flight deck could see. The caption also states eight sailors on the flight deck were injured when the cable snapped. Think about a steel cable the size of a forearm whipping and slashing around an open deck and you with nowhere to hide from it. That cable will sever an ankle in a heartbeat or take out a knee, depending on where it hits a body. Here is the video of the E-2C landing The video is in two segments tied together. First is shot from deck level as the plane first hits the deck. The second segment is shot from the camera up on the island as the plane rolls off the end of the deck.