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On a related note, I saw a video at the Pensacola Naval Air Museum of the USS Forrestal fire. Not a maintenance error, but an electrical anomaly caused a Zuni
by hcrisp 8y ago
On a related note, I saw a video at the Pensacola Naval Air Museum of the USS Forrestal fire. Not a maintenance error, but an electrical anomaly caused a Zuni rocket on a McDonnell Douglas F-4B Phantom to fire, striking an external fuel tank of a A-4 Skyhawk. The flammable jet fuel spilled across the flight deck, ignited, and triggered a chain-reaction of explosions that killed 134 sailors and injured 161. Future Senator John McCain was on deck and barely escaped the flames.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_USS_Forrestal_fire https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_USS_Forrestal_fire
- rsync 8y agoWe had to watch that video during naval basic training. IIRC, McCain was not merely on deck, but was strapped into his airplane. I also remember that they were pushing fighter jets overboard rather than attempt to extinguish them as there was magnesium on fire that could not be put out quickly with the resources they had and they were afraid they would just melt through the ship, like thermite.
- stoolpigeon 8y agoWe watched it too - and since I worked on the fight deck I saw it many more times. How the Forrestal fire was handled is a case study in how to do it wrong and the high number of casualties was the very sad cost of how poorly prepared the crew were.
- nyolfen 8y agoin a video i just watched, it said that mccain's plane actually dropped two 1,000lb bombs into the fire that exploded shortly after it began https://youtu.be/HfnlWKdD2fI?t=643 https://youtu.be/HfnlWKdD2fI?t=643