Several years ago on two separate occasions on a show perhaps Hard Copy I saw a video of a sailor on an aircraft carrier getting sucked right off the ground and into a jet engine. The quality of the video was not that good, but there was no question about what I saw. Apparently the navy said that the guy survived, but they wouldn’t release his name. Later in discussion at work, I was told that the entire story and video were fabricated.
Is the story true or not?
How close was he standing? For an average sized fighter-jet, I don’t think that it’d have enough force to do that, but I’m not completely sure. I’ll have to check it up.
The E-6A accident video? True story AFAIK.
The blades of a turbine are lightweight now, and that crewman sure chewed the hell out of the inside of that engine…
IIRC, his helmet was sucked off and shattered the first stage blades, causing an engine explosion (in the video you see massive flames erupt from the back of the engine) and triggering an emergency shutdown, and his body was prevented from entering the turbine by a couple supports in the duct. IIRC as well, he suffered a couple broken bones, but otherwise was fine.
But I could have mis-remembered.
Anthracite is right. if you see the video, you can’t help but think the guy gets chewed up (he’s over half-way inside the intake), but he doesn’t. in the navy we’re constantly doing fod walkdowns (foreign object damage) on ramps/runways to clear out pebbles, nuts, bolts, etc. which could be sucked up into an engine. this guy was lucky… his size saved him.
Cool.
I knew the guy wasn’t seriously injured, and that the engine was trashed.
Thank you Anthracite and flyboy for more corraborative details I can use to add artistic verisimilitude to otherwise bald and unconvincing narratives…
oooh…big words.
(Ashley goes to fetch his dictionary.)
go to
skip the trash and go down to ‘dumbass is back’ (I did say ‘Don’t ask’, didn’t I?)
(P.S.: Please don’t judge me by this link:D. Purely fortuitous circumstance. Some Doper posted the URL a while ago (‘Weirdest sites’ thread, or something of the sort) and I remembered that, aside from the purely prurient - leave that dictionary by your side, Ash - there were also photos or videos that were…out of the ordinary. Lo and behold, this week’s edition!)
“bangedup.com” sure is an interesting site. First, it opens 4 pop-ups on my desktop. Then it opens Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0, as it generates rampaging access violations all across NT. Hmmm…
I’m sorry you seem to be having problems (although my very limited knowledge in this area prevents me from determining if this is major, or just an inconvenience). When I go to the URL, I have this pop-up asking me if I’m over 21. Then, once I’ve clicked OK, there’s another pop-up “Unlimited free trial membership” that comes up. Once I’ve eliminated that window, I click on “Bangedup” and it opens up the site.
Again, sorry if there are problems. As you can imagine, it wasn’t the original intention.
The ‘Unlimited free trial membership’ has nothing to do with Bangedup. I guess it’s one of their ‘sponsors’.
The footage (very short) was borrowed from NBC’s ‘World Most Amazing Videos’. Went to the NBC site in the hope of finding a more ‘suitable’ URL, but it wasn’t of much use. Maybe someone else would have better luck.
Sorry, wasn’t blaming you, omni-not. Just chattering about the strange actions my browser did.
I remember that. I think it was an Intruder. He was interviewed later on the carriers “TV station” reminding everyone to be careful.
Man, I bet he had to change my shorts on that one…but I bet his were already sucked off by the turbine.
Sadly enough, while the flightdeck crewman from the OP survived with minor injuries, it’s common for flightdeck crew to be killed during flightOps. The job is listed as among the 10 most hazardous jobs in the world (number 6, I believe…).
Not to be nit-picky, but I thought two important things happened that saved the guys life.
The guys jacket got temporarily snagged on a protrusion in the intake and slowed him down enough for…
His flashlight smashed up the blades and shut the engine before he could get seriously injured.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but this guy gets my vote for Luckiest SOB on the Planet.
Michael
PS: Seen the video and still can’t believe he survived.
IIRC, his web gear/jacket caught on something and the engine FODed on his helmet. After that, it kinda shut itself down (basic jet engine premise: spinning turbines. No turbine blades, no spin :)).
I remember this video. It was a Grumman A-6 “Intruder”. AIR, the sailor’s webbing on his vest snagged on a “probe”. I don’t know enough about the Intruder to know what this “probe” was (I doubt it was the pitot tube because you want that to be in the “free air” undistrubed by the airframe or anything alse).
The man’s helmet FOD’d the engine, as did some of his personal equipment. The pilot noticed something wrong with the engine (by reference to his instruments) and initiated an immediate emergency shutdown.
Does anyone remember the LTV A-7? A line of these little attack planes looks like a flock of hungry baby birds. A caption of one photo I saw said in reference to theur low intakes that “they have a particularly sinister reputation”. (Ref. IIRC, is a book with a pair of F-14s from VF-1 on the cover; but it could have been one of the Motorbooks such as Supercarrier.)
A nasty killer, evil rep well earned. Th low slung intake is perfectly placed to grab the incautious.