251–260 of 274 posts
Something similar happened to my dad (USAF fighter pilot) in around 1961 or 62: He was test-flying a T-33 single-engine jet trainer assigned to his unit after it'd had repair work. The engine quit and wouldn't restart. He ejected, but his parachute didn't deploy fully (much the same as in the article) and he got tangled in the shrouds. He said a quick Hail Mary just before crashing head-first in a muddy, fresh-plowed…
In a story of insane luck (and unluck!), the craziest part is definitely this " He said that if I had had a spleen, it almost certainly would have ruptured when I hit the water, and I would have bled to death. Of the 25 pilots in our squadron, I am the only one without a spleen. It gives me something to think about. Maybe it does you as well."
If he'd had a spleen there would be no story to tell. People have fallen that distance and not lived (possibly because they had spleens).
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I'm not sure I agree with the inhumane (flight pay is an incentive pay where without it pilots still make the same pay as the rest of the military their rank), but I can confirm the stupidity of the policy. Usually anyone medically interacting with a fighter pilot on an issue that could be grounding must spend some time gaining trust for the pilot to be completely open with them. The result of this policy is normally…
For some context, "flight pay" ranges from $150/month to $400/month today, depending on tenure. A brand new lieutenant has a ~$41k base salary, a 4-year captain ~$65k. So it's not a small incentive, but not huge either. There are other things like base housing (or a housing allowance), overseas pay, etc, that bump up overall comp a bit.
So while today it's not a lot, back then it'd be at least a 30% pay cut which would be hard for any family.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For some context, "flight pay" ranges from $150/month to $400/month today, depending on tenure. A brand new lieutenant has a ~$41k base salary, a 4-year captain ~$65k. So it's not a small incentive, but not huge either. There are other things like base housing (or a housing allowance), overseas pay, etc, that bump up overall comp a bit.
Additional context: At the time this happened (after 1958 and before 1963), monthly pay for a new 2LT was 220 (2.7k per year) and for a 4 year captain 420 (5k and some change per year). Flight pay would be 100 and 185 per month (1.2k and 2.2k per year respectively). So while today it's not a lot, back then it'd be at least a 30% pay cut which would be hard for any family. https://www.dfas.mil/Portals/98/MilPayTable19…
It amazes the quantity of resources that will sometimes be deployed to rescue a sole man (or a handful) lost at sea. Not to say this is a bad thing; I would certainly appreciate it if I were lost at sea. But it might be questionable to a pure utilitarian. I counted at least one plane, two ships, and a helicopter all being diverted for the rescue. That's a great deal of expense in terms of fuel, I assume hundreds of c…
A) Legend has it that the last bow-tie-wearing nerd to question this policy slipped and fell overboard, or was maybe left for dead in the parking lot of some fisherman's dive bar in a quaint New England town. Nobody really knows for sure, because HIPAA, I think.
B) nobody in any decision-making-slash-accountability chain dares approach it that way, not only because they don't want to be knifed to death behind an AutoZone, but precedent goes back to, I dunno exactly, but I'll be bold and say "the dawn of seafaring", or maybe "whenever international maritime law was written down". (It ends up finding its way into "render assistance" clauses in some motor vehicle codes, by way of Rich People Horseless Carriage Sunday Driving Clubs and their Gentlemanly Codes of Honour or whatever - notably, predating Good Samaritan, IIRC.)
C) Most "diverted" resources probably aren't really doing anything of importance anyway, and people dying takes precedence over, say, taking pictures of the water or how sparkly the ozone layer is. Also, there's a good chance it's .
There's usually a high degree of parallelism during the Search phase, as only the irrelevant half of the math works out on the fuel/time efficiency of, say, 1 aircraft vs 100 to fly a grid when the guy is (e.g.) clinging to a liferaft rope with broken arms, legs, back, and pelvis in 5' seas. The other 98 can go home (or the circles they were flying before) when Search is solved for and Rescue begins.
D) it's free training, almost certainly more interesting-slash-valuable than whatever was planned, and much higher fidelity than any simulation - PLUS! all of the inadequate planning, mixed messaging, nose-picking, dick-measuring, wrong radio channel-ing, confusion, ignorance, broken equipment, and general chaos of dealing with actual people in real life! ("practice how you perform/you perform how you practice")
As the OP demonstrates, there's often only a moment or two between your shitbox (built by the lowest bidder) catching on fire, and the need to flawlessly execute and context-switch through multiple checklists, with only your non-dominant hand, flight gloves, and your backup pocket knife, else everything explodes and everybody dies, The End.
The Navy sends ships out to sea during hurricanes, both because it's safer than smashing against docks, and “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor". Also, there are some interesting anecdotes about building lazy or incorrect muscle memory, or people panicking and reverting to classroom-style behavior (like cleaning up and organizing tools) when they feel they've reached The End of their Scenario, as it were. Contrary to popular myth, most people get dumber and forget the most basic of things under pressure, rather than Rising To The Occasion and, classically, lifting a car off of a baby.
So, I suppose all of this is to say that one should probably also amortize the (extraordinary) cost of things like this over the value of things like "a competent Navy", "proficient aeromedical crews", "Marines that can count AND do things with their hands", "being able to insert a trauma surgeon (or explosives) basically anywhere in the world inside of a few hours", and so on.
As an old partner of mine would sing while chugging preworkout, checking equipment, and getting psyched for the day:
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow // This opportunity comes once in a lifetime // You better
(Or, if you prefer the Latin: Haec Facimus, Ut Alii Vivant, Ut Ceteri Vivant, Etc.)
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I thought the craziest part was where in this sequence of events does the pilot say > “This is very serious,” I thought. It's just after > "The main, 24-foot parachute was just flapping in the breeze and was tangled in its own shroud lines. It hadn’t opened! I could see the white folds neatly arranged, fluttering feebly in the air. So... after the flame-out, after the fire, after the lack of radios, after the failed…
> after the flame-out, after the fire, after the lack of radios, after the failed ejection, after the canopy manual ejection, after jumping out of the plane, after not hitting the tail, then after pulling his parachute and it doesn't open does he finally think - man this is serious. If you're a theist, you might be forgiven for thinking that someone was trying really hard to get your attention, after a day like that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> after the flame-out, after the fire, after the lack of radios, after the failed ejection, after the canopy manual ejection, after jumping out of the plane, after not hitting the tail, then after pulling his parachute and it doesn't open does he finally think - man this is serious. If you're a theist, you might be forgiven for thinking that someone was trying really hard to get your attention, after a day like that.
Yeah, your maintenance crew! (Just kidding. Not sure about that pilot, but the book's author, Ron Knott, has written a number of Christian books. Wouldn't surprise me if that's related to why the book included that story.)
Yeah after that I might ask for a transfer and also vow to never again to sleep with a maintenance chief’s wife.
This doesn't seem like a big deal, since it is only 15,000 feet and he had the help of an unopened parachute, which certainly slowed his descent, even though it didn't slow his descent enough. By contrast, Vesna Vulovic fell 33,000 with no parachute to help her, and she also lived. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9496466/stewardess-terror-fell...
Back-of-envelope math on an educational website says terminal velocity for a human in a horizontal position (that is, someone with some control over themselves trying to not go fast) is approximately 120 mph, achieved after falling about 1490 ft. https://owlcation.com/stem/Drag-Force-and-the-Terminal-Veloc...
This happened in 1963. Planes had only been flying for 60 years at that point; it really is pretty amazing how quickly we progressed on technology during those early years. We still fly 737s, which are descended from a design that first flew in 1967. As well as the C130, which was part of this story. And don't get me started on B-52s, which are even older. We have made great strides since then, of course, but it does…