Those things are floating death traps! :eek: This carrier crap is for the birds!
Well, yeah. The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is regarded by most experts (insurance companies, top-10 listmakers, etc.) to be the most dangerous work environment there is (some put it second to north seas fishing boats).
You think that stuff’s scary, see if you can find the video of the sailor getting sucked into the engine of an A-6 Intruder. Luckily, his helmet came off and trashed the engine before he got to the fans; he survived with no major injuries.
Eons ago, I dated a guy who was stationed on a carrier in the Med - can’t recall which one. He was a flightline troubleshooter - standing by in case there were any last-second avionics problems that he could fix before launch (in a S-3 squadron) He told me one day, he found himself spacing out when on deck and immediately asked to be reassigned. Spent the rest of the deployment working on the hangar deck. He got out of the Navy shortly thereafter.
I don’t recall specifics, but I know he had lots of horror tales of life on the flight deck. There’s so much going on in a small area - those guys earn their flight deck pay.
While a Marine, I was part of an F18 squadron. F18s are highly modular, and our squadron’s F18s were outfitted for patrols/strikes from an aircraft carrier. I spent over two years of my life floating on the ocean in an aircraft carrier.
Ironically, most dealths or major injuries did not happen because of all of the machinery in close proximity. Most people fell overboard either by accident or on purpose, and were never recovered.
Out of a full crew of 5,000 people, we would lose on average 7 people per a six month deployment.