Eight sailors were injured aboard the USS Eisenhower when an arresting cable snapped during an E-2C Hawkeye's landing in March 2016. Read all about the incident.
Sailors on the deck can be seen running both toward the plane and toward the eight hit by the cable, as the aircraft reappears in the sky, miraculously maintaining enough momentum to resume flight.
Injuries among the sailors included a fractured ankle, wrist, pelvis and legs. One sailor received skull and facial fractures and another may have suffered a possible traumatic brain injury.
Navy investigators said human error was to blame for the March 18 incident.
They found that workers missed at least one or two 'critical steps' while working on the engine that helps operate the flight deck's cables, according to a report obtained by The Virginian-Pilot.
The engine thus failed to slow down the E-2C Hawkeye plane and the cable snapped and 'recoiled sharply and backlashed', hitting the eight crew members, the report states.
It was the first time in more than 10 years since a cable had broken on a carrier deck, Naval Air Force Atlantic spokesman Cmdr Mike Kafka told the Navy Times.
The report states that although there was a 'lack of procedural compliance' from the crew who was working on the engine, it found that they 'reasonably believed they had properly and conscientiously completed the complicated procedure'.
Investigators found that the crew, which were troubleshooting a fault code in the engine from a previous landing, were using an approved Navy procedure that wasn't 'user friendly'.
The three-person crew aboard the Hawkeye 'heard the tailhook re-contact the flight deck and felt a shudder' as the wire broke.
They knew something was wrong when the Hawkeye continued down the flight deck, the report states.
The pilots managed to land the Hawkeye, which was undamaged, at Naval Station Norfolk. They are credited in the report for their 'phenomenal airmanship'.
A sailor on the scene said the incident left the pilots completely 'shaken up'.
'One of them, you could tell it messed him up,' the sailor said.
'Because they thought they were going to die.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3683234/Navy-plane-nearly-crashed-sea-metal-cable-snapped-injured-eight-sailors.html#ixzz4E6s1pezP
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