How Aircraft Carriers Survive Storm Season Without Losing Billion-Dollar Jets

Comments · 891

• DA

  @Dailynavy · 4 months ago · pinned

  ⚓ Veterans — been there done that — Drop your ship and years served below if you lived through storm season at sea 🌊🇺🇸

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• R1

  @r1965aaa · 5 months ago

  Air Force here. A T-38 student pilot was going for a check ride. He started up the aircraft and the instructor pilot said "you failed".  After shutdown, the IP showed him the chain holding the aircraft to the ground. There had been storms the night before. After taking off the chain, the student completed the check ride. Then make up ride. He had to go with the IP and his CO and explain why it's important to unchain an aircraft before flying it. Then he passed.

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• NE

  @Neorott · 8 months ago (edited)

  I was coming back from my first Med-IO cruise onboard the USS JFK (CV67). We hit a storm in the north Atlantic and the waves were massive. We took a wave over the flightdeck. At the same time the hanger crew was moving an A6 off the #3 elevator. Obviously if the wave went over the flightdeck it also went over the lowered elevator. Four men were washed overboard and it nearly took the plane captain out of the cockpit of the A6. Which pretty much destroyed the plane too. The entire A6 was submerged in saltwater. Three of the men were found, but the fourth was not. I still remember his name after all these years, Aviation Boatswain's Mate 3rd class Smith. RIP shipmate.

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• EL

  @elaineteut1249 · 7 months ago

  My husband was an electricians mate on the USS Coral Sea out of San Francisco and Alameda, from ‘61 to ‘65. I got to go on a Dependent’s Day cruise. They put on a nice air  show and we had lunch on the ship. All of us really enjoyed it. He was very proud to serve on that carrier. Small now considering the size of the newer carriers.

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• DA

  @dank40nc · 5 months ago

  That salt water has to be hell on the aircraft.

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• CA

  @carmenfelder5104 · 5 months ago

  Best sailors in the world.  Teamwork is united and perfect.  We need to be proud of them. God blessed, and thank you..

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• MA

  @macworks9389 · 8 months ago

  At the end of the day there is only one person responsible for the safe tie down of that aircraft.  It is the brown shirt plane captain.  It's your airplane.  You own it until you lend it to the pilot after he signs the preflight sheet. You're the one that goes out every 30 minutes to ensure the chains are tight enough during the storm.  You preflight it, clean it, daily it, move it and put it to bed.  It's your bird.  Never forget your responsibility.  People bet their lives on your professionalism.

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• SD

  @sdallas68 · 8 months ago

  Fascinating video.  Really enjoyed this information.  Please consider getting a human narrator.  The AI is unsettling.

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• RI

  @richardreimer · 8 months ago (edited)

  Mr. Computer Voice has trouble saying MPH... so funny. P.S. I was a White Shirt 👍 QA Final Checker, Loved Every Minute of it. ⚓ Go Navy!

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• RE

  @remaguire · 6 months ago

  The December 1944 typhoon was a once in a lifetime storm. If it was bad on a bird farm, imagine what it was like on a tin can! USS Dewey rolled close to 90 degrees during the storm. The skipper was on the bridge when it happened and he grabbed a pipe in the overhead and he remembered his feet scraping the sea. Whew! Admiral Halsey took a lot of heat for not avoiding that storm. Lots of men lost their lives.

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• BK

  @bkip20002 · 6 months ago (edited)

  Serving on the USS John Hancock (DD-981) back in the '80's, we were escorting the USS Eisenhower in the stormy North Atlantic. The seas were so rough that an aircraft jumped it chocks and went over the side with two souls on board. We spent a couple hours searching but nothing was recovered.

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• 72

  @72HzNewCanaan · 6 months ago

  My Grandfather Calvin Coolidge Martin was on the USS Monterey with Gerald R Ford- my GF was a ship Gunner❤ RIP Love and Miss you!

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