Clips: S-3 Viking Carrier Landing
5 Comments Published by Joel January 2nd, 2007 in Jobs. Share ThisWhat I love about this video is how completely boring it is. Precision isn’t exciting, but I’d prefer the former over the latter in this scenario, especially with less than one minute from approach to landing.
After the jump, the most terrifying at-sea landing video I’ve ever seen as a CH-64 Seaknight pilot gets caught on a metal safety net on the deck, flips, and plunges into the sea along with his passengers. Never fails to give me chills.
And while you’re here, another bad helicopter at-sea landing.
Remind me not to fly in a helicopter to my private yacht . . . stick with the fixed-wing jets.
My brother’s girlfriend is a Marine -he flies CH-53s and he explained the second video that you posted to me (the 64 which rolls off the deck). Apparently the crewman on the deck (who you don’t see in the video) shouldn’t have waived off the helicopter and it was likely that he was getting mixed messages from the guys on the chopper and on the ship.
Once it was in the water, the pilot and co-pilot managed to swim out and one of marines (who broke his back and one of his legs in the crash) managed to swim out and grab another guy with him on the way out. About 10 other guys on board all died.
Details are kinda fuzzy, but I think that that’s the gist of it; pretty sad story really.
errr… girlfriend’s brother.
Christopher, first off it’s called a helo, only civilians call them choppers… choppers are motorcycles.
Secondly, mixed signals from the Landing Signalman Enlisted (LSE) did not cause the pilot to land too close to the deck edge safety nets. That was pilot error. Also, whether or not the LSE waved off the pilot has no bearing on the failure of the pilot to assure proper clearance of the aircraft before taking off. Due to the improper and unsafe landing position, the landing gear was too close to the safety nets. Proper procedure is for the pilot to rise vertically off the deck before moving horizontally. The pilot began to take off and at the same time move away from the deck causing the main landing gear to snag the safety net, a “hot dog maneuver” gone bad.
Pure and simple, pilot error, but as happens more often than not, officers have a tendency to blame the enlisted for their mistakes… spread the wealth as it were.
The accident also led to a huge change in emergency egress philosophy, training, and technology. The Army learned that crew recovery would become a new and more focused recurrnecy program. The Marines and Army (andd to a lesser extent Air Force) also realized the need for HEAVES (I think I got that selled wrong) wich is the small self contained SCUBA system carried by all passengers for just such an emergency.
As for the landing, all landings are interesting, and never routine. Wind, weight, and traffic, are just a few of the various factors that must be factored in establishing a sucessful approach and flare. I am land based, and still instructing at the peon level (albeit with over 900 hours of instruction given and over 2000 landings). To make a carrier landing look “routine” is a merit to the pilot, who is dealing with a moving, heaving, rocking landing strip… and a controlled crash at the end. Notice the engines spooling up just before catching the wire… that is so s/he can botler if the wire was missed… and you have to anticipate that for the time to thrust inherient with a jet comapared to props.