On this day in aviation history: In 1981 a Tomcat crew goes swimming. It had been a normal training flight for Commander Bill Switzer and Lt. (JG) Dave Baranek of VF-24. Heading home to the USS Constellation steaming in the Indian Ocean, the pilot and RIO were looking forward to some time off from flying. Little did they know there landing would be anything but normal. As the Grumman F-14 Tomcat was guided skillfully towards the deck, all seemed perfectly fine. The aircraft caught the #4 arresting cable, but instead of coming to bone jarring stop, it just kept going, dragging the snapped wire behind it! Deck crew watched in horror as the huge Tomcat barreled down the flight deck and over the edge of the deck. Luckily, just milliseconds before it was too late, Switzer and Baranek ejected successfully and were rescued by the SH-3 plane guard helicopter flown by members of HS-8. The Tomcat sank after floating a few minutes in the choppy waters of the ocean. An accident investigation determined that the arresting cable had been set for the wrong weight causing the massive F-14 to snap the thick metal cable like a thread.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 14:00:01 +0000
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