I was the crewman/navigator in that incident. Azatavrear, we did blow the lower hatch. On landing, it crumpled like so much tinfoil. Surprised us, too. Actually, living through the landing wasn't as bad as seeing it on film later that day. Even though the fuselage was slightly buckled aft of the cockpit, the bird was barged to the Naval Air Rework Facility in Alameda, CA, and later returned to service. In 1966 it went down east of the Philippines due to fuel transfer problems; one of the crew was recovered, but the other two were never found.
+Frank Peele I was in VAQ-33 70-74 and heard about this from some of the old timers. I worked on them for the 4 years I was there, and later became the the NAS Transient Line "Specialist" for them when they would pass through.
+Frank Peele Adding another detail, we caught 2 wires on the barricade landing, so proved nothing about the barricade's ability to stop that much weight. Barricades had been tested with other A3's, but not with our gross weight, so there was some uncertainty right up to the impact.
serach for the video for Skywarrior accident happened at USS NIMITZ on 25 January 1987. The crash barrier was so low that it could not sopt the mighty warrior and the plane slipped into the sea killing all seven onboard. Look at the differences between crash barriers in this video and that accident. On board USS NIMITZ they were aware that the crash barrier did not raised properly but ue to the low fuel of the aircraft they used it half raised and did not work.
I can't beleive they landed A3D's on the Coral Sea! I was on the Indy, a much larger ship, and the sight of thewm landing was a scary affair. The plane was WAY too big for carrier use. I think they used them on carriers in the late 80's or early 90's.
Not much time to realize front wheel is gone and then have to power up and take off again. Everything he did looked perfect, excellent presence of mind
The moment a plane touches down, on the flight deck, the pilot goes to full power, so he doesn't have to "react" to an emergency. If something happens, the power is already at max and a bolter should be safe.
Great video!!!!Neat to see a Demon in action too.Some serious skill with the Skywarrior having your wits about you enough to do a go around........ Cheers
The one Airforce model had an ejection seats (Crew of two only) but original Navy birds had none. Normal A-3 bailout consists of an Egress procedure (when men where men) either through the lower escape chute door or through the side door on the long cabin models. Both doors have exposives that blow them open. The crew seat cushons are parachute/survival gear, NB-7 or 8. the procedure is to cross your arms and slide down the lower door with your head tilted to one side. Minimum Altitude 5000 ft.
Those were some real pro's right there, from the pilot to the the men on the carrier. Something bad happens, deal with it and handle business according to training.
My berthing area was right under the #3 arresting wire, and when the A-3,s main mounts hit the deck, it sounded like a bomb going off.The lights would blink and paint chips actually fall off at times.It sucked because it made it hard as hell to sleep.
Wow, that is awesome. The physics (loads, forces, etc.) envolved to stop an aircraft as large as the A-3D must be incredible. My hat's off to the engineers who designed that barrier.
I doubt it was a write off. It was a pretty gentle landing, considering. Naval aviation...no easy days! I loved how two of the straps caught across the intake of the starboard engine. What are the odds? Kudos to the crew, and to the pilot for that excellent go-around after knocking his nose gear off! That could have turned nasty before he even realized what was going on. Naval aviators have real balls!
I believe it was the FDR on a Med Cruise in the early 1960s which had an A-4 come aboard with the gear up. It took a wire and skidded to a stop on the drop tanks. The aircraft was jacked up, the gear lowered and it was towed off. Lots of embarrassed people.
That landing was simply Marvelous... I'll bet if you manage to find 10 videos on planes taking the barricade, all 10 will have disastrous endings... This is the first video I've ever seen where the pilots walk away, let alone only minor damage to the a/c... Only a Navy Pilot could have made that landing!
Reading a comment far below, I see someone is amazed that Whales were on the Coral Sea (Midway class). They were also on ESSEX class carriers. They only time that I was ever inside one was aboard the Lexington when she was still a CVA.
yeah, it was something like that. They set up an escape tunnel of sorts for the crew to get out instead of ejection seats. They assumed most flights would be at higher altitudes.
@ Amar. Good call sir. Too bad their era is coming to an end (civilian life). I am launching one of three remaining Whales out of Pt Mugu tomorrow to its final resting place, destination Widby Island Washington Museum. I have worked on many aircraft but never came across one built as tough as an A-3....and you become very attached to them :)
In 1962 I was aboard the U.S.S. Constellation on a cruise from Norfolk to North Island (San Diego), around Cape Horn. I was on the forward deck when an A3, which had just finished a major check, was being launched for a test flight. As soon as it cleared the deck, the entire nose strut, including attached wheel, detached itself from the aircraft and fell into the ocean. It flew around for a couple of hours, to burn off fuel, while the deck was made ready for a barrier landing. As I recall, the barrier was much farther forward than the one rigged on the ship in this video. Perfect landing, caught a wire and into the nylon straps. The straps cut into the leading edges of the wings ONE FOOT.
vapormissile We lost an A-3 on that same cruise. I can't recall what the problem was, but it almost certainly had something to do with the landing gear, and it was decided to not attempt a barrier landing, but to have the crew bail out, down that really cool SLIDE that they use in that plane. They all landed, in the water, about 300 yards off our port beam. I've seen an F-3 Demon pilot eject, at night, about a 1/4 of a mile off our starboard quarter, from 2,000 feet. That was very cool, until we hit a dense fog bank, and it took 3 hours to find the pilot.
The barricade on the Kitty Hawk class was just aft of the island, same spot on all carriers, just forward of the arresting gear. That would be a great bit of PLAT to see, and i bet more than one guy filmed that catch with their 8mm movie camera's.
I suspect the one on the Nimitz which ended badly was VQ-2 EA-3B Ranger 12 in Jan 1988. I flew in Ranger 12 out of NAS Key West whenever she deployed down there in the 70's. Also served aboard the Nimitz in the late 70's. Barrier was not properly rigged or the acft might have caught the barrier and the seven crewman survived. S A D.
@oldgeezer68 Stationed at NAS WHIDBEY where we had A6's that I worked on and A3's in Heavy 10 and 123. The first week I worked there, an A3 cartwheeled. As a line troubleshooter my boss came from A3's. When 1 came by on the taxiway I'd say I wouldn't walk under those POS's when they are sitting on the deck. He'd say "They have 2 of everything they need to stay in the air." I'd say "Unfortunately they need 3 of everything". The crews loved them, couldn't run them out of one with a shotgun.
I was also stationed at NAS Whidbey Is. with VAH-123 for training and VAH-10 Det 3 1968-1971. I heard about the cartwheel crash. The pilot was practicing single engine approach. Oh, how I miss the spook watch midnight to 6am watch over at the seaplane base!
First off, was that Demons in the footage? If so, never come across film of them before. Damn that A-3 was huge, landing INTO the barricade. Never seen that before. Things were certainly different in the good old days.
I love how the nose wheel keeps going and flies off the deck after the plane! I wonder if it washed up on a beach in Japan or something. LOL. What's up with the nose on the Skywarrior? Is that a recce version with cameras in the nose, or is it just painted black. LOL, it looks like a little mini-intake as the plane comes in.
Try landing them on a 27c Essex class carrier, VAH-4 had that dubious honor as we provided 3 plane detachments to CVA-14, CVA-19, CVA-31 and CVA-34, our pilots had to a good and they were!
Gorgeous plane. Though, the pilot really ought to have flown things like the C5 Galaxy... I don't think there's enough space for his balls of steel in the cockpit!
joh joh There's a crash and salvage crane on wheels somewhere on deck. They lift it onto the elevator. But towing into the hangar would require something under the nose, perhaps. A jack on wheels?
When I was on the JFK in the Med, we were doing flight ops with the Nimitz as we relieved them. They had an A-3 try to take the barricade because for some reason it was below bingo fuel. It was a night landing and the A-3 hit so hard that it actualy bounced over the barricade. The gear caught the barricade and the plane flipped upside down onto the angle deck and slid off into the water. 7 or 8 guys gone just like that. That was in '86 I think. No A-3s on carriers since then, as far as I know.
Just an observation. After viewing the video, several times, if you look at the "flex" of the left wing you will see it was "massive"! It looked like the plane hit the carrier deck slightly left wing low, and almost a three pointer with the nose wheel coming into contact, with the deck, a "microsecond" before the mains. The flex in that wing kind of indicates that the descent rate was probably a bit more than normal. Wonder what the findings of the Navy were? Just an observation.
Why didn't they blow the lower escape chute door down to act as a nose gear? Once blown the lower chute door locks open and can support the aircraft weight even in landing.
I was the crewman/navigator in that incident. Azatavrear, we did blow the lower hatch. On landing, it crumpled like so much tinfoil. Surprised us, too. Actually, living through the landing wasn't as bad as seeing it on film later that day. Even though the fuselage was slightly buckled aft of the cockpit, the bird was barged to the Naval Air Rework Facility in Alameda, CA, and later returned to service. In 1966 it went down east of the Philippines due to fuel transfer problems; one of the crew was recovered, but the other two were never found.
Thanks for sharing hat chief.
+Frank Peele I was in VAQ-33 70-74 and heard about this from some of the old timers. I worked on them for the 4 years I was there, and later became the the NAS Transient Line "Specialist" for them when they would pass through.
+Frank Peele
Adding another detail, we caught 2 wires on the barricade landing, so proved nothing about the barricade's ability to stop that much weight. Barricades had been tested with other A3's, but not with our gross weight, so there was some uncertainty right up to the impact.
I was in VAQ-33, 1971-1975, plane capt. for the A-3's, my name is Stephen Jeffery. I don't recall your name...what dept. did you work?
I was in VAP-61 from 1962-65; this incident was in 1963.
serach for the video for Skywarrior accident happened at USS NIMITZ on 25 January 1987. The crash barrier was so low that it could not sopt the mighty warrior and the plane slipped into the sea killing all seven onboard. Look at the differences between crash barriers in this video and that accident. On board USS NIMITZ they were aware that the crash barrier did not raised properly but ue to the low fuel of the aircraft they used it half raised and did not work.
I can't beleive they landed A3D's on the Coral Sea! I was on the Indy, a much larger ship, and the sight of thewm landing was a scary affair. The plane was WAY too big for carrier use. I think they used them on carriers in the late 80's or early 90's.
That deserves a medal.
Not much time to realize front wheel is gone and then have to power up and take off again. Everything he did looked perfect, excellent presence of mind
The moment a plane touches down, on the flight deck, the pilot goes to full power, so he doesn't have to "react" to an emergency. If something happens, the power is already at max and a bolter should be safe.
That and I’m sure over the radio someone told him he didn’t have the nose landing gear.
Great video!!!!Neat to see a Demon in action too.Some serious skill with the Skywarrior having your wits about you enough to do a go around........
Cheers
Never saw one on my ship. The plane I worked on, the F-14 with a TARPS pod replaced the Vigilante.
The one Airforce model had an ejection seats (Crew of two only) but original Navy birds had none. Normal A-3 bailout consists of an Egress procedure (when men where men) either through the lower escape chute door or through the side door on the long cabin models. Both doors have exposives that blow them open. The crew seat cushons are parachute/survival gear, NB-7 or 8. the procedure is to cross your arms and slide down the lower door with your head tilted to one side. Minimum Altitude 5000 ft.
Ah, the old Coral Sea...my dad was the XO of her fighter squadron when she was commissioned...
Those were some real pro's right there, from the pilot to the the men on the carrier.
Something bad happens, deal with it and handle business according to training.
Proud to have served with VAQ135 at NAS Alameda..
Ditto VAQ-130 at NAS Alameda.
My berthing area was right under the #3 arresting wire, and when the A-3,s main mounts hit the deck, it sounded like a bomb going off.The lights would blink and paint chips actually fall off at times.It sucked because it made it hard as hell to sleep.
I slept under the number 2 wire on the Oriskany. Paint chips did fall on my rack
Wow, that is awesome. The physics (loads, forces, etc.) envolved to stop an aircraft as large as the A-3D must be incredible. My hat's off to the engineers who designed that barrier.
It's amazing what an enormous pig the Skywarrior was - a C-130 is only about 20 feet longer, and the A-3 was a dedicated carrier-based aircraft.
About 6 years later I served with some of these people who were there.
finally! a video showing a crash landing on deck using the barricade!
I expect the narrator to say, "It was a GLORIOUS crash landing as the MAGNIFICENT rescue crew rush TRIUMPHANTLY into action!"
Wow! I love 50s and 60s jets! Thanks alot!
I doubt it was a write off. It was a pretty gentle landing, considering. Naval aviation...no easy days! I loved how two of the straps caught across the intake of the starboard engine. What are the odds? Kudos to the crew, and to the pilot for that excellent go-around after knocking his nose gear off! That could have turned nasty before he even realized what was going on. Naval aviators have real balls!
I believe it was the FDR on a Med Cruise in the early 1960s which had an A-4 come aboard with the gear up. It took a wire and skidded to a stop on the drop tanks. The aircraft was jacked up, the gear lowered and it was towed off. Lots of embarrassed people.
love old military vids,,
It was retired in 1991 but entered service in the mid 1950'ties.
That landing was simply Marvelous... I'll bet if you manage to find 10 videos on planes taking the barricade, all 10 will have disastrous endings... This is the first video I've ever seen where the pilots walk away, let alone only minor damage to the a/c... Only a Navy Pilot could have made that landing!
Lol How is it that this dude back in 1960BC can film better than people aboard carriers today...
Reading a comment far below, I see someone is amazed that Whales were on the Coral Sea (Midway class). They were also on ESSEX class carriers. They only time that I was ever inside one was aboard the Lexington when she was still a CVA.
Me either, I have no idea how they got whales aboard those small WW-II era light carriers.
yeah, it was something like that. They set up an escape tunnel of sorts for the crew to get out instead of ejection seats. They assumed most flights would be at higher altitudes.
just awsome
@ Amar. Good call sir.
Too bad their era is coming to an end (civilian life). I am launching one of three remaining Whales out of Pt Mugu tomorrow to its final resting place, destination Widby Island Washington Museum.
I have worked on many aircraft but never came across one built as tough as an A-3....and you become very attached to them :)
In 1962 I was aboard the U.S.S. Constellation on a cruise from Norfolk to North Island (San Diego), around Cape Horn. I was on the forward deck when an A3, which had just finished a major check, was being launched for a test flight. As soon as it cleared the deck, the entire nose strut, including attached wheel, detached itself from the aircraft and fell into the ocean. It flew around for a couple of hours, to burn off fuel, while the deck was made ready for a barrier landing. As I recall, the barrier was much farther forward than the one rigged on the ship in this video. Perfect landing, caught a wire and into the nylon straps. The straps cut into the leading edges of the wings ONE FOOT.
+theoriginalbadbob bet those were some long hours, flying around talking & thinking
vapormissile We lost an A-3 on that same cruise. I can't recall what the problem was, but it almost certainly had something to do with the landing gear, and it was decided to not attempt a barrier landing, but to have the crew bail out, down that really cool SLIDE that they use in that plane. They all landed, in the water, about 300 yards off our port beam. I've seen an F-3 Demon pilot eject, at night, about a 1/4 of a mile off our starboard quarter, from 2,000 feet. That was very cool, until we hit a dense fog bank, and it took 3 hours to find the pilot.
;) I bet that was a long 3 hours bobbing over deep ocean, waiting to get run over by a carrier group.
The barricade on the Kitty Hawk class was just aft of the island, same spot on all carriers, just forward of the arresting gear. That would be a great bit of PLAT to see, and i bet more than one guy filmed that catch with their 8mm movie camera's.
Top Crash!!.... nice recovery✈️👍
RS Man I have more than 50 barricade films in my collection, only the one aboard Nimitz ended badly.
I suspect the one on the Nimitz which ended badly was VQ-2 EA-3B Ranger 12 in Jan 1988. I flew in Ranger 12 out of NAS Key West whenever she deployed down there in the 70's. Also served aboard the Nimitz in the late 70's. Barrier was not properly rigged or the acft might have caught the barrier and the seven crewman survived. S A D.
Nicely brought home.
They got them aboard with balls of steel.
Why are the Navy videos from the 50s-70s much clearer than the ones from the 80s into early 90s. Never understood that
The earlier capture was on 16 mm motion picture film. Later captures were on video, at relatively low resolution.
0:31 - like a BOSS.
@oldgeezer68 Stationed at NAS WHIDBEY where we had A6's that I worked on and A3's in Heavy 10 and 123. The first week I worked there, an A3 cartwheeled. As a line troubleshooter my boss came from A3's. When 1 came by on the taxiway I'd say I wouldn't walk under those POS's when they are sitting on the deck. He'd say "They have 2 of everything they need to stay in the air." I'd say "Unfortunately they need 3 of everything". The crews loved them, couldn't run them out of one with a shotgun.
I was also stationed at NAS Whidbey Is. with VAH-123 for training and VAH-10 Det 3 1968-1971. I heard about the cartwheel crash. The pilot was practicing single engine approach. Oh, how I miss the spook watch midnight to 6am watch over at the seaplane base!
First off, was that Demons in the footage? If so, never come across film of them before. Damn that A-3 was huge, landing INTO the barricade. Never seen that before. Things were certainly different in the good old days.
I love how the nose wheel keeps going and flies off the deck after the plane! I wonder if it washed up on a beach in Japan or something. LOL. What's up with the nose on the Skywarrior? Is that a recce version with cameras in the nose, or is it just painted black. LOL, it looks like a little mini-intake as the plane comes in.
Looks like they were landing pretty hard.
Nice Save!
I used to rig those baricades. Dont really see much of them get used though.
No matter how many times I see it, I still can't believe anybody ever landed an A-3 on a carrier. Looks impossibly big/
My Dad flew these, retired 1973
My dad was a plane captain for V2 Rota Spain. He retired in the early 70s as well. His name was Charles Moore.
In my country a man have a EA-3B Skywarrior
skills yall.
Heavy Two we had the best pilots
これでゴーアラウンドできるのが凄い
CMDR Morris was the CO of my Dad's squadron.
I don't think one ATTEMPS a crash landing XD
take about the way to do it...kudos
@Azatavrear My guess is so that it doesn't create any grooves and potholes on the deck. It'll be like a jackhammer busting through asphalt.
uss coral sea huh that was a great ship with a good name then they hit an oil tanker on a clear day and now their name is coral can't sea
Man...A-3's on the Coral Sea??? Damn, they were too big for the Independence!
Try landing them on a 27c Essex class carrier, VAH-4 had that dubious honor as we provided 3 plane detachments to CVA-14, CVA-19, CVA-31 and CVA-34, our pilots had to a good and they were!
Just a bunch of guys doing their jobs.
Kick...Ass...
that takes skill...sorta
This most be the A3L model... 😂
0:58 "this is gonna hurt"
@oldgeezer68 Dad was aircrew on the A3D, he made it.
Jason Watkins how did you get the check mark after your name?
@firegoat10000 Yes, those are Demons.
Gorgeous plane. Though, the pilot really ought to have flown things like the C5 Galaxy... I don't think there's enough space for his balls of steel in the cockpit!
good vid
textbook(crash) landing!
how the hell would those poor mechanics move that thing down to the hanger?
joh joh There's a crash and salvage crane on wheels somewhere on deck. They lift it onto the elevator. But towing into the hangar would require something under the nose, perhaps. A jack on wheels?
The inside joke in the navy was that the designation "A3D" meant "all Three dead" if it crashed (no ejection seats).
@n74jw Roger that. Lost my buddy in one.
When I was on the JFK in the Med, we were doing flight ops with the Nimitz as we relieved them. They had an A-3 try to take the barricade because for some reason it was below bingo fuel. It was a night landing and the A-3 hit so hard that it actualy bounced over the barricade. The gear caught the barricade and the plane flipped upside down onto the angle deck and slid off into the water. 7 or 8 guys gone just like that. That was in '86 I think. No A-3s on carriers since then, as far as I know.
Pilot: Oops I've my fwd wheel gotta take her back up again shit.
the nosegear was never recovered, a shark is doing a wheelie somewhere i guess.
Just an observation. After viewing the video, several times, if you look at the "flex" of the left wing you will see it was "massive"! It looked like the plane hit the carrier deck slightly left wing low, and almost a three pointer with the nose wheel coming into contact, with the deck, a "microsecond" before the mains. The flex in that wing kind of indicates that the descent rate was probably a bit more than normal. Wonder what the findings of the Navy were? Just an observation.
Why didn't they blow the lower escape chute door down to act as a nose gear? Once blown the lower chute door locks open and can support the aircraft weight even in landing.
@USMANchampNO1 There was no ejection seats. It's model number was " A3D". All 3 Dead
A3D = All 3 Dead
A-3D All 3 Dead