An absolutely frightening scene aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was captured on camera providing visual evidence of an incident that resulted in eight sailors suffering injuries in March.
The Virginian-Pilot has obtained footage of the March 18th accident where a landing E-2C Hawkeye traveled through the cable intended to catch it. As you can see in the clip nestled at the top of the page, the aircraft lands on the flight deck only to keep moving forward beyond the snapped cable until it falls out of view. Thankfully, the plane reemerges at the end of the clip managing to regain speed and altitude. It would later land safely at Norfolk Naval Station.
The U.S. Navy has determined human error to be the main cause of the accident, although their investigation notes that the mistake appears to be unintentional.
The Navy did not find evidence of willful dereliction of duty or negligence by the maintenance workers. The report said that while there was a “lack of procedural compliance” while troubleshooting an error code from a previous arrested landing, “the sailors involved reasonably believed they had properly and conscientiously completed the complicated procedure.”
The failed attempt at containing the plane resulted in numerous injuries to sailors, including one of the injured suffering what’s been described as a “possible traumatic brain injury.” Another sailor suffered skull and facial fractures.
(via The Aviationist & The Virginian-Pilot)