A USMC TAV-8B Harrier from VMAT-203 suffered a landing gear malfunction when trying to return to MCAS Cherry Point. The Marine aviator realizing his gear failed to extend naturally referred to SOP that dictated activating the backup safety nitrogen bottle to blow the gear down.
Unfortunately for the pilot and plane, when communicating the issue over the radio, a higher-ranking officer ordered him not to follow standard operating procedures and instead had a stack of strapped mattresses placed in the centre of the runway.
Much to the surprise of the Officer who devised the imaginative contingency plan...when the 23,000 lb fighter jet blowing down over 20,000 pounds of vectored thrust from its Pegasus engines settled down on its bed, the landing mattresses immediately responded with an un-contained self-executed rapid kinetic disassembly exploding in a shower of metal springs, fabric and coils that were quickly ingested through the spinning blades of the jet engine.
Although the aircraft was extensively damaged, the pilot was able to climb out of bed without injury.
When ground crews jacked up the Harrier Jump Jet, they we able to blow the gear down with no problems. This is when the story takes an even stranger turn. Once the jet was placed in the hangar, relatively undamaged structurally speaking, an EZ-go golf cart came flying into the hangar and smashed directly into the jet, causing some D-level repair damage. It turns out that the cart operator was huffing keyboard cleaner shortly before making his parts run in the EZ-go. He got dizzy, lost consciousness and the cart, now driverless, turned directly into the hangar at full speed through a gap in the hangar doors and smashed into the parked Jump Jet.
Thanks Alex
Sounds like the whole thing was part of a sequel to the movie Airplane, it only missed the part where the higher-ranking officer who ordered him not to follow standard operating procedures had picked a bad day to quit sniffing glue
ReplyDeleteeclectickelvin, LOL! You summed it up so perfectly.
DeleteI've heard they're not safe.
ReplyDeleteedutcher, I don't know.
DeleteGee, "Be Prepared" and all that; just happened to have a stack of mattresses stashed in a nearby hanger.
ReplyDeleteAnon, left over from the orgy.
Deletehttps://www.2ndmaw.marines.mil/News/Article-View/Article/2832665/a-farewell-to-marine-fighter-attack-training-squadron-vmat-203/
ReplyDeleteI wonder when this mattress event occurred as this unit was deactivated a few years ago.
Michael, that or biden wasn't invited to the orgy, so he deactivated the unit.
DeleteI know I saw a video of a jump jet that had its forward landing gear fail. The crew hustled out a small platform to support the jets front end when it landed instead of allowing it to hit the deck. The video demonstrated the pilots skill in guiding the front end on to the little platform
ReplyDeleteAnon, they didn't use mattresses? I guess this unit doesn't host orgies in their hangar.
DeleteMarines... Who the hell knows what those guys do. Mattresses? Marine ingenuity but not SOP.
ReplyDeleteSometime if you get time: Look up how the Marines outsmarted AI and laughed the whole time they did it.
Anon, good for them.
DeleteI was in this squadron MANY years ago. Despite the questionable content of this story, never underestimate the ability of a higher ranking officer to make a catastrophically bad decision.
ReplyDeleteTripwire, Nintendo college boys.
DeleteI worked with VMAT-203 in 2000 - 2001. It was the RAG, Replacement Air Group, for 2nd MAW, Marine Air Wing. We studied how well NAVAIR, Naval Aviation, trained Harrier pilots, which was "not very well." They had the same amount of time to train the VSTOL pilots as F-18 pilots, although to train how to fly with the vectored engine takes a long time. Only the best grads from basic flight school were allowed. Every one of them were warrior pilots, and the females were the scariest. Sat in on a class to review a CBT on the inertial navigation system. I speak professionally to say it was not well-done CBT. The class gathered and the instructor, a major, comes in still wearing his sweaty flight suit just back from a hop. He asked the call what they thought of the CBT. All the guys sort of looked at anything but the major. But one of the women spoke up saying, "Sir, that was the lousiest piece of sh#t I ever saw!" All the guys breathed a sigh of relief and the major broke out laughing. She was right about that. I doubt the wing commander, Major Connelly, would have approved the mattress landing technique, however.
ReplyDeleteRickvid, They need to be tested for walking and chewing gum at the same time first.
DeleteGod didn"t seem to like this certian jet that day.
ReplyDeleteHeltau
Heitau, bad design?
DeleteThe most dangerous things in the Marine Corps:
ReplyDeleteAny 2ndLt who says “based on my experience…”
Any Capt who says “I’ve been thinking…”
Any Major who says “I’ve got an idea”
But THE most dangerous thing in the Marine Corps is any pilot, anywhere, at any time, saying “watch THIS shit!”
This incident appears to possibly involve a cascading effect of all 4.
Semper Fi
Anon, scary shit.
DeleteMy father was flying an R4D (C47) in the Pacific in 1944, loaded wirh Marines and equipment. On short final, to a dirt strip, the right MLG refused to descend. He announced 'belly' landing. The Marine major commanding the troops ordered him to land with only one wheel down. My father replied, "Sir, if I do that, we will likely cartwheel with injuries and loss of life. You command the troops: I command the aircraft'. They landed successfully, no injuries. The plane was lifted, repaired, and back in the air within days.
ReplyDeleteNot all Marines are stupid. My father was and is my hero.
dbm
dbm/retired, Life is more important than ego.
DeleteWe used to use Mattresses with shitters and that worked really well want a great answer ask a Crew Chief
ReplyDeleteAnon, I didn't know mattresses came with shitters.
Delete