What Happens When an Arresting Cable Breaks on US Aircraft Carriers? 

Do you also have great respect for the men and women of the U.S. Navy? Especially the US Navy pilots who have to land on the flight deck. Then like this video to pay your respects and thank them for their service. Let us know if you've ever worked on the flight deck ⬇️💙

That E-2 save was intense... probably skimmed the water there, remarkable recovery by the pilot to stay with it!

I figured I'd hear a bunch of horse shit when I watched the video, and you didn't disappoint. You got a _LOT_ wrong (Ik waardeer je interesse in de marineluchtvaart, maar je moet je feiten op orde hebben): 1. The catapults are _steam_ operated, not hydraulic. Many years ago, probably 75 years ago or thereabouts, catapults _were_ hydraulic. They were very strong shots and were hard on aircraft and the air crews. The switch to steam catapults allowed the release of steam into the cylinders to be started at a relatively low setting, reaching the maximum by the end of the shot. It's still a heck of a kick, but not nearly as bad as the old hydraulic cats. (During World War Two, there were actually scout plane catapults on top of some battleship turrets, and they were powered using what was essentially a cannon round without the explosive shell. _THAT_ must have been a ride.) The two cylinders make up a single catapult, not a pair. The catapult _only_ provides airspeed; it itself does nothing to make the aircraft gain altitude. EDIT: As @Dennis Sanders pointed out (and that I'd forgotten to mention), the cats on the Ford, CVN-78, are electromagnetic. They've had some birthing pains, but that's typical with new technology. They're supposed to be more reliable and gentler on air crews and aircraft. 2. Aircraft are taxied to the bow catapults _or_ the waist catapults, those that are located a bit further back, on the angle deck area. 3. In the event of a cable break, personnel aren't evacuated. (Their bowels might have evacuated, though.) A cable break happens fast and by the time anyone even thinks about leaving the flight deck, the worst is over. What happens instead is that people run to the area on the flight deck nearest where the airplane went into the water, so they can keep track of air crews that ejected, or in the case of E-2s and C-2s, people that (hopefully) managed to get out of the aircraft - those don't have ejection seats. 4. You got it half right about replacing cables. An arresting gear cable is made of three parts - the cross-deck pendant, which you see on the flight deck, and a purchase cable on each side of that, which goes down to the deck below and is attached to the arresting gear engines. In the event of a cable break or even less severe damage to the cable, the crew changes out the cross-deck pendant, and that can be done in just a few minutes, with only a minor disruption to the recovery cycle. Replacing a damaged purchase cable is a long process, so that particular arresting gear would be out of commission until flight operations stop, when there's time to make the change. There's really no repairing a broken or damaged cable; either of those things will result in its replacement. 5. The "control tower" - Primary Flight Control - doesn't provide any kind of brief to the air crews. The briefings, which are conducted about two hours before launch time, are done mostly via closed-circuit television. That way, all the air crews involved in a particular launch cycle all get the same information at the same time. Once that briefing is done, individual aircrews _may_ get additional briefings from Strike Operations, ASW Operations, etc., if their mission requires extra information. 6. Landing aircraft are not supposed to have the hook catch the cable before the wheels hit. That's called an in-flight engagement, and it cane case damage to the aircraft and cable. The goal is to have the main landing gear (not the nose gear) touch down a split second before the cable is caught. 7. The extra cables aren't there in case as a backup when a cable breaks. Those extra cables are there in case the pilot is flying below glideslope (too low) or above glideslope (too high). Some of our current carriers have four full-time arresting gear cables, and on those ships the goal is to catch the third one from the back. Newer carriers have three full-time cables, and the goal then is to catch the middle one. All three or four (depending on the carrier) cables are identical. 8. This one I think is just a bad choice of words; you probably understand the concept. The aircraft doesn't land at full speed; in fact, it flies so slow it's near the stall speed. What happens is that when the tires hit the flight deck, the pilot goes to full power on the throttle(s), just in case the hook misses a cable, an event called a bolter. 7. There is no canopy to protect air crews from wind blast and debris. The only protection is the helmet's visor and the oxygen mask. 8. Air crews _DO_NOT_ unbuckle before ejecting. First, one of the pieces of gear that's worn, the torso harness, connects the seat occupant to the seat _AND_ the parachute. Unbuckling that is a guaranteed death sentence. If there's time, the canopy may be jettisoned, but in a dire, quickly evolving emergency that's not done. Typically, the ejection sequence also includes the automatic jettisoning of the canopy, although with some aircraft, like the S-3 Viking (what I flew in as a SENSO; see note at bottom), the ejection is done _through_ the canopies. Each seat had a "breaker bar"" above the occupant's head, and that would break the canopy. 9. Helicopters are not used to help crews evacuate the aircraft. The barricade ("net") is there to stop the airplane if there''s a mechanical problem (landing gear won't come down) or the pilot has been injured and likely can't fly a normal pass. The helicopter, already airborne for normal launches and recoveries, is there to pick crews up out of the water, not to get them out of the aircraft. 10. Crosswinds aren't an issue for carrier aviation. It's standard procedure to steam into the wind during both launching and recovery cycles, so there is no crosswind. Aside from that, you vastly overstate the danger of crosswinds in any kind of aviation. 11. Pilots don't compensate as you would think for flight deck motion. The visual guide on the ship that pilots use to fly the proper glideslope is the Improved Fresnel Lens Optical Landing System (IFLOLS,, more commonly known as the meatball or ball). The ball is gyro-stabilized, so pitching and rolling of the deck are not something the pilot should be concerned with. Looking at the flight deck instead of the ball is called spotting the deck, and it's something that will cause more problems than it will resolve. Heaving (straight up and down motion) of the ship _will_ affect the landing by causing the aircraft to be above glideslope (landing long) or below (landing short0. Of course the heaving of the ship could coincide with the aircraft landing so that it has no effect. 12. "The Tower" (Primary Flight Control) doesn't control or even advise on the descent of the aircraft. Along with the ball, there are Landing Signal officers off to the left (port) side of the flight deck and far back, and they will make radio calls, if needed, to the pilot. LSOs can often spot problems developing before the pilots can. Once the recovery cycle is done, the LSOs go to the different squadron ready rooms to give the pilots a quick debrief and score. At night or in bad weather, when the Carrier Air Traffic Control Center (CATCC) takes over, _they_ will provide some instruction to the pilots, but once the airplane is 3/4 mile from the carrier, the approach is done like during the day - ball and LSOs. There's another RU-vid channel like yours, basically just regurgitating misinterpreted information and then presenting it to your viewers as fact. I don't expect you to change your ways, because your crap brings in views, and views bring in advertising dollars. ### NOTES: 1. Beginning at 00:23 in the video, you'll see a clip of a Hornet going over the edge and into the water. I spoke with someone that was there when it happened, and techniclly it wasn't a broken cable, but it had the same effect. The cable was actually pulled free of the arresting gear engine. As I said, the result is the same. What's really interesting about this video is that first you'll see a guy jump over the cable as it whips around, not once, but _twice._as it came back. Managing to jump over it once is incredible, but doing it twice is nearly miraculous. Right after that, you'll see some firefighting personnel that are knocked over as the cable hits them in the legs. I don't know how badly they were injured (it's pretty much guaranteed they were), but I know that in some cases people end up with traumatic amputations of their legs, and in at least a few cases, people have been cut in half by the cable as it flails around. There was time I thought I might have to eject, and it would have been a really, really bad situation. We were in the pattern (the marshal stack) for a night landing. Someone in another Viking saw our airplane and thought the tailhook was extended far more than normal; the concern being that it might be broken. (It turns out the hook was fine; he was just mistaken.) So if it was in fact broken, it could have broken completely loose when it caught a cable. We would have been slowing down _and_ some distance down the flight deck, too slow and with not enough space left for a bolter. The only option would have been to eject, which is particularly dangerous at night. You might be hard to spot in the water initially (there are flares and a strobe light in the survival vest, so we could probably have been found at some point), you could end up with your parachute caught in the antennas and cables on the mast (possible during the day, but harder to see someone dangling at night), or, with day or night ejections, if you end up in the water at the wrong spot, the ship could run you over (it's steaming fast enough into the wind to generate about 30 knots of wind over the deck). S-3A Viking Sensor Operator (SENSO) VS-29, CVW-15, USS Carl Vinson

Imagine being HIT by one of those steel cables. Looks more dangerous being on the deck of a carrier than landing on one.

Absolutely amazing skills second to none

The best part of this video. ( documentary photography) The only thing I regretted from being an army photographer .never got a chance to record anything always retasked to non mos duties.. my bigest regret was that I didn't go navy to be a photographer... even if I can't swim, and no damm good in cold weather it would have been more productive as a career I would have had plenty of place I could have gone in the navy to be in film and photography. I never got to do a job, I always love to take pics of real action.... I wasted so many years 😪 ..

" Diverting to another runway?" What the hell are you talking about, What other runway?

I was just thinking of this.

If I was I pilot I would just be thankful everytime I landed and took safely that looks like some scary ass shit ngl 😂

Not hydraulic catapults. Steam catapults, until the USS Gerald R. Ford class. There are about six other countries that have carriers. Most only have one. The US Navy is the only one that conducts flight ops at night.

3:30. He is firing his guns. What does that have to do with carrier landing?

Was aboard U.S.S. Nimitz for Med Cruise 1981-1982. We had a crash of an EA-6B on the flight deck off of Mayport, Florida destroying several other aircraft and killing 14 people. 78 were so severely burned they had to be medevac'd to shore. We had the first deployment of the great F-14 Tomcat in the med and Ronald Reagan told Mohamar Khaddafi that he didn't control as much of the Mediteranean Sea as he thought and so we proceeded to shoot down 2 of his fighter jets with the then new tomcat combat air patrol. America 2, Libya 0.

I just have to say I love the video portion but the narration was so full of errors and erroneous information it turned my stomach. I spent 20 years in the Navy and 14 of those were working on A-7 Corsairs & F/A-18 Hornets, in all I completed 5 cruise's and upon retirement had over 5 years at sea. Please do everyone a favor if you make another video like this get your shit together, get your facts straight and give people the correct terms and narrative of what's going on. One simple fact you misstated was cross wind, sorry but the ship is always moving and when it's time to launch and or recover the aircraft we ALWAYS turn into the wind, so unlike on land we don't have cross winds on a carrier. If the wind isn't blowing we just speed up and make our own wind (LOL). Oh and another GROSS ERROR the catapults are not hydraulic they are STEAM, well they were when I was there and most of your video shows that, I know they were testing an electro-magnetic cat but I don't know if it is in use or not

There is no backup arresting cable on an aircraft carrier. Most carriers have 4 cables where a couple have three. They do not repair a broken cable it is replaced.

Had 124 successful carrier landings from from 1989 to 1992. Never had a cable break, but, experienced several missed hooks due to weather and other factors. The first dozen takeoffs and landings on a carrier are terrifying, after that, its just routine stress and anxiety. Wouldn't have traded any of it for the world!

As a Boilertech we provided steam to operate not only the ship but also the cats - proud to have served

There is no back up cable at the end of the runway. No crosswind landings on a carrier. The ship turns into the wind for recoveries. In rough seas, the Landing Signals Officer adjusts the glideslope manually presented to the pilot to account for the pitching deck. The night A-6 barricade arrestment occurred on USS Ranger in 1987 and the deck was pitching up and down more than 40 ft (I was in a squadron aircraft on the flight deck at the time). The LSOs are well trained to overcome such issues. Uh, no detailed briefing from the tower. Everything is zip lip during the day. Uh, they are steam catapults not hydraulic catapults. The tower does not monitor the aircrafts control and decent, the Landing Signals Officer does that but only actively during night ops. Daytime recoveries are normally zip lip. The hook is dropped way in advance of final approach. If the aircraft bolters (ie, doesn't engage a wire) which can occur for a number of reasons, the pilot simply goes to max power and takes off again. That is why modern carriers have angle decks. The pilot is not congratulated on a safe and successful mission. They instead go to the dirty shirt wardroom for a slider and a cup of coffee (it doesn't get any better than that). The closing comments were accurate. Awesome photos and videos of carrier ops. It truly is a sight to see. This cannot begin to characterize the skill and courage of our Navy and USMC men and women and aviators who are the best in the world! Semper Fi.

I was on a Nuclear cruiser, Virginia class in battle group foxtrot! ⚓'s Away salute!!!

NOT landing a "full speed" it's "full power" - BIG difference JR

When the aircraft touches down on the deck he automatically pushes the throttles to full power whether he grabs the arresting cable or not. If he misses the cable or it brakes he has enough power to fly back off the deck. I was on the carrier USS Constellation in the 70's as a plane captain and we had 4 arresting wires. The last wire ( #4 ) was not an "emergency cable", it was just #4. I never heard it called an emergency cable. The arresting cable was changed after a certain number of landings on that wire as a safety measure, worn or not. Aircraft were "bingo'd" back to land if he was in range of a landing field if he could not extend his hook. The cable was always a danger to us and you always kept an eye out for it during landings. It did not help if you worked night shift on the "roof". It did not have to brake to kill you. P.S. Pilots would place beer bets on what wire the pilot would grab on landing. Catching the # 4 wire cost you a case of beer to the other pilots ! You always shot for # 3.

The pilot does NOT have to unbuckle or open the canopy to eject. The harness keeps the pilot in his seat during ejection, and the canopy automatically is jettisoned in the ejection sequence.

Navy pilots are the best in the world. I was a fly 2 director on the USS INDEPENDENCE. 74-77

I served in the USAF 1965-1969. I have the utmost respect for Navy pilots!! God bless our military and their families!

Worked six months on the flight deck of the Kennedy, CV 67, in 92/93. Saw an E2 Hawkeye crash after getting waved off for smoke in the cockpit(all 5 aircrew died). Saw a F-18 bolter 6 times as the tail hook wouldn’t lock and bounced every time, pilot had to land in Egypt. Saw another F18 land at night with the parking brake on, blew all the tires out. Watched an F14 almost get swallowed by a giant wave that broke over the bow just as the cat was shooting it off the end of the deck in heavy seas, still can’t believe he made it. Luckily never had an arresting cable break. Loved working on the flight deck, so glad i had the opportunity to do that.

Lived in Florida 40 years ago. Knew a Navy Deck officer that used to take his legs of and set them on the bar.. cable broke, cut one leg off below the knee, the other above the knee. Hell of a nice guy in spite of what happened to him.

I'm a ABH from the gator Navy(LHA-3) and i know that you dont REPAIR a cable, you REPLACE it. 🤦🏾‍♂🤦🏾‍♂

This was a very weird narrative that was largely uninformative and often inaccurate, but presented in a well-organized manner. Things like 9:04 'this will be the final step of the landing process, and the pilot will be congratulated on a safe and successful mission." That's just uninformative filler material, and also inaccurate since debriefing probably doesn't work like that

I was in VF-154. Attached to CAW 2. Our carrier was the USS Ranger. Two Vietnam war time cruises 1967-68 and 68-69. Tonkin Gulf yacht club. Also we went to the very cold Sea of Japan when the North Koreans took the USS Pueblo off the high seas in January 1968. Seeing the flight deck activities always brings back a lot of memories. I worked on the radar systems in the F-4B phantom and F-4J phantom. Spent quite a bit of time on the flight deck, mostly night ops as I worked 7pm to 7am. VF-154 Black Knights we were a tight group. Being war time cruises we had a lot of bombs and missiles being loaded. Many unreps. I can say this, the operations have not changed on the flight deck. Aircraft being launched and recovered. That is a constant. Fair winds and following seas to you all.

I was on the USS America in the Mediterranean Sea when I had to leave due to family emergency. I was loaded onto a C-2 and seated facing the tail. A crewman gave the cue to us that we're launching. I tried to look out the portal to see how fast we were leaving the flight deck. No way! As soon as the cat activated, I was slammed out of my seat with only the straps keeping me in. All I could see was the back of the seat in front of me. Roller coasters have nothing on this. This was in 1978.

I used to know a guy 40 years ago who flew Navy A-4 fighter jets. He said it was 98% boring and 2% sheer terror.

Great to see this coverage of a very dangerous job which I had the honor of doing for a very long West Pac cruise many years ago. Hookrunner is a fun thing to do, but also quite dangerous. Those cables move quickly and if you're not careful they will knock you over or wrap around you and drag you down the deck in a very rough way. I'd rather be tackled and thrown around by a football team than a moving arresting cable (having been knocked down and dragged by one and surviving it). Thanks for sharing this.

Enjoyed my 24 yrs onboard CVN 69, 75 and LHD-1. Retired 2 yrs ago and miss it a lot. Never thought I would say that. I was terrified of the flight deck. I worked inside the skin of the ship. Air Dept guys and ladies were always top notch. Godspeed to you all.

USS Kennedy Med Cruise 1974 - U.S. Marine Aviator 1972 - 1978

What happens when an arresting cable breaks? You'll watch someone perform a magic trick. Except it won't be a saw that cuts them I half. Like a hot knife through butter

One nit, the catapult is not hydraulically powered; they are steam powered except for the newest launch system which is the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) by General Atomics which uses uses a Electo-magnetic system just like the name implies.

at 2:53 ...... "unbuckle their harness and jump out of the aircraft" .... What? Those pilots are NOT jumping out, they are being blasted out by a powerful rocket seat !!

Red Shirt CVN 69 Theflight deck of a carrier is both the most exhilirating and dangerous place one can ever work. Even when I wasnt working Id go watch flight ops from the bridge. I often miss the sound and fury of that environment. When one considers that most of the people you see out there working are ages 19-24 you know you have the best of the best defending your country. From one vet to another Thankyou for your service.

Cross Winds? l thought the carrier turned 'into' wind ...why would there be a cross wind.

You need to find a researcher who doesn't use wikipedia.

Just who doesn't love our airmen? and our sailors you are remarkable people and thank you for protecting our country.

The most exciting time of my life was when I worked on the flight deck. FLY-3 PO USS America CV-66

Best place on the planet to learn to concentrate on your surroundings, I still don't walk backward anywhere. Did the Saratoga, America, Forrestal and Nimitz. GO NAVY !!!

I think they land at full power, not full speed.

Having been on a "Tiger Cruise" aboard the USS America with my Marine son, I have the greatest respect and gratitude for the dangerous work the crew performs. God Bless them, and God Bless America.

I served on the JFK as a AE between 1975 and 1979. While it was a little scarry being on the flight deck it was also the best experiance of my life time. I especially loved being on the flight deck At night when we wernt flying . I would lay on the deck, looking up at the night sky with millions of stars and hearing the ocean waves. What a great experiance. The world is different today and I wish all the sailors of the Navy to be alert, safe and also enjoy your down time when you can. One day you will e me looking back too.

My Father was on the USS Oriskany (CV-34) and saw a man cut in half by a broken cable.

I was a flight deck troubleshooter with VFA-136 Knighthawks aboard the USS D. D. Eisenhower during the beginning of Desert Shield and the end of Desert Storm.

I was in VF- 51 screaming eagles in the early eighties, they used our F-14s in the movie top gun. Served on the U.S.S. CARL VINSON back then. One of the biggest fears as a deck ape back then was the possible breakage of a cable during aircraft recovery. It was the most dangerous job I ever had.

I did a west pack cruise on the America ! After we were done on yankee station we did around the world cruise! Went from subic bay to Australia and NZ then around South America another stop in Rio and the back to Norfolk! I stayed on the ship just so I could do this cruise!

Wait what ? The catapult are not hydraulic , they are steam that's why you of course see the steam coming up during and after the jet takes off

July 19, 1963. USS Constellation lost a cable. The crew lost many legs. Also the crew of the F4 from VF143. Was not something you can ever forget.

I have always admired the pilots on an air craft carrier as well as all the support staff. Thank each and every one of you as well as your families that share you with our nation!

Excuse me, the catapult does not give the aircraft altitude!!

I worked on the flight deck and absolutely Controlled Chaos is always present. Still liked to watch flight ops from the Crow's Nest at night. Would do it all again 10/10.

God Bless our Men and Woman in Service at home and abroad! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. God Bless America! The Land We Should all Love!

In the 70's I saw (while in the Navy) a cable break flying out of control and cutting a man in half.!

My Dad served on the USS Roosevelt (first), the USS Carl Vinson, and the USS Nimitz in the 80s. He rose to Senior Chief and his squadron maintained the AWACS planes. My family got to go on a "Dependents cruise." I'm so proud of his service.

Med cruise, 1974 USS America (CVA-66) A-3 whale broke the arresting gear. Aircraft crew survived but lost close friends from V- 2 division. When the arresting gear broke , wire whipped through the flight deck cutting a shipmate in half.

I served aboard USS NIMITZ, catapult #2 84-88, seen a lot of stuff happen of the flight deck especially at night. Loved doing the job, takes a special bread of men and women to do it.

Thank you all for your service to our country!!! Be kind to one another. Stay safe. Love to all

He didn't mention as the touch down on the deck they hit full throttle in case they miss the cables and if they brake they can cut a person in two or loss a limb

My father was on the HMCS Magnificent in the 50's. Canadian carrier. Some of the stories he told would raise your hair. One, they were thought lost in the Indian ocean in a hurricane with 90 foot seas. They lost comms and when they returned to port there was seaweed on the radar. I have many slides taken of them fishing sea fury's off the side of the deck. I have such admiration of all the people who serve, regardless of what branch of military. Thank you all for keeping us free

I never saw any cables break but I have been there when there was a cold cat on two different times. First time was scary because it was at pitch black dark with no moon and the pilots ejected and it looked like the 4th of July when those squibs went off, one pilot landed in the water and the SAR helo got him and the other pilot came down and was injured bad because his chute caught the life rafts and slammed him into the side of the ship. They got him up and there was blood all over him, he was flown off the ship ASAP. The Tomcat was history, it went down in over 13,000 feet of water.

Worked on flight deck USS Enterprise Arresting Gear mid 1970 s. Hook runner, deck edge operator and topside petty officer. Also USS Midway topside p.o. late 70's early 80's . Loved the rush of it all

I worked on flight deck in arresting gear 3 or 4 wires if a cable breaks they clear cable from landing area Resume flight ops depending on which wire is broke if a cable breaks it will require at least 12 hours to replace and that's is on a good day and plus anything else for damage to the equipment below decks

Jan 2005 on the kitty hawk i was on the flight deck when the arrested wire snapped.. cut someone leg off it was bad.. then hit our Helicopter so hard that it was unrepairable.. lucky no one was standing there or they wouldve been cut in half.. including me..

Yeah, the U.S. NAVY does it ALL, And does it all at once! U.S. NAVY veteran PO3 '73>'77 NAS JAX FLA

Bless our Vets Love you guys. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

I was stationed on the USS Hancock CVA-19 from 67-70 out of Alameda Calf. Was in First Div. ( Deck force )for about six months then transfused to Communications Div. This gave me the opportunity to become a qualified Helmsmen for flight ops. among other duties. Three tours in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam. On my off time of mostly (12 on 12 off) I would watch Flight Ops. From the island structure in awe in the skills of the flight crews and the pilots. But all had a job on board to keep our floating city and airport afloat and safe. For me nobody could buy a life experience like ours. My honor to have survey beside you in a common goal. God Bless 🇺🇸 ⚓️ 🔱 🇺🇸

Scary awesomeness! Thank you all for your service. Anchors Away!

The basics of flight deck operation have not changes in 60 years. I worked on the decks of Saratoga and Ranger in the late 60's and early 70's and what I saw is more like today then like it was only 15 years before I was there. It is a very dangerous place to work a 12 hour day in tight spaces, with jet blast, movement of aircraft, fueling, ordnance loading and aircraft maintenance going on at the same time to meet a tight flight schedule. Ranger lost a RA5C and crew to a broken tail hook and a C2A an all on board to a cat shot. My hat is off to anyone who worked the flight deck be they ships company or air wing. GO NAVY.

I served on the USS New Orleans USS Independence USS Coral Sea USS Savannah I have seen a lot of catastrophes on the flight deck of the USS Independence C-130 mail plane crashing into the ocean because the pilot Bank it too far the pilot and co-pilot and Navigator didn't make it the nine members in the cargo area did make it some of the mail did some of the mail didn't I seen guys hit by the cable the resting cable not a pretty sight a seen a man sucked up and blowing out the exhaust of a jet and I saw a man hit by a propeller most of the green Church redshirts brownshirts you see on the flight deck or 21 year old and younger I was a brown shirt. I maintained and inspected our helicopters and ready them for the pilots when they needed to take off in an emergency when an aircraft would crash into the ocean or someone would fall overboard which did happen it's a very busy place you cannot run around with your head up your ass on the flight deck of a busy aircraft carrier believe me. You have to want to do that type of work which I did and you have to be alert every second you're out there on that flight deck because any emergency could happen at any time in a millisecond I've seen ordinance Fallout 4 aircraft slide across the deck and into the ocean I'm 73 years old now that's probably one of the most dangerous places I've ever worked in my life. I didn't take the job because it was dangerous I took the job because it was interesting and it made the cruise go fast

Quite a bit in awe of the design, preparation, and teamwork of the business of aircraft carriers. It is especially fantastic how few tragic events actually occur. Great job, US Navy.

I have respect, appreciation and thanks to all service men and women in all branches of the military not just the Navy. My father served in the Navy from 2951-55 on the battleship USS New Jersey and was a Seabee.

If he landed at "full speed" on the carrier the arresting cable would NEVER hold.

Hmmm... I didn't know there was a runway on an aircraft carrier! And, how do you struggle with crosswinds when there are none when landing into the wind? The most crosswind ever would be about 15 degrees to starboard if the carrier had to make wind with no natural winds to account for. Okay, I'm being nit-picky and I realize your audience isn't a Naval aviator, but, if you are going to put NAVY as your website name , I think a little research is in order. It would be interesting to the average viewer why there isn't crosswinds when landing at sea and why it isn't really a runway but a "flight deck." Keep em coming.

The steel cable is not a brake. It is connected to very large hydraulic equipment in the deck below that absorbs all the kinetic energy.

Was on Midway CV-41, USS Franlkin D. Rosoevelt CV-42, USS Forrestal, CV-59, USS John F Kennedy, CV-67, and USS America CV-66. Sadly I saw just about every type of flight deck emergency that could happen - cable break, cold cat, hit the round down, flame out, exploding at the end of the cat shot, and deck crew being injected by the engines (2 A-7s, 1 A-6, 1 F14). With all that, we did thousands of shots and traps without any problems. My advice to YEMA Productions is that you research your terminology and some facts such as - cross winds - no such thing on a flight deck that is putting 30 knots of wind down the deck. The only place the aircraft might experience cross winds is on final but the ship does it's best to make sure that doesn't happen. That's one of the reasons the LSO's check the flags on the mast.

I worked the Flight Deck and Arresting Gear on 3 Different Carriers and I tell You it was a Major Rush...

I was abored the John f Kennedy 80 to 82 we had a faulty deck when a small bomber hit the arresting gear cable when it was not yet ready for landing when the plane snapped the cable and it was something know one would want to see the after effects death and destruction I still see this happening in my head

The boat promises us 30kts wind-over-the-deck. The risk of a cable failure or a hook skip is why we hit full power when the wheels hit and leave it at full power until a yellow-shirt comes out and gives a cut signal. Then we can raise the hook and follow taxi signals, and in the event of a bolter we're at full power can go around, even lighting the burners if the aircraft is so equipped. As a criticism, you showed a USAF F-22 and an AV-8, neither of which have tailhooks.

It boggles the mind to think of how aircraft carrier personnel and pilots can be so well trained and so proficient at their jobs in such a relatively short amount of time.

I though the launch system was high pressure steam. The new system “EMALS” is all electric. Think of it as Mag Lev

“Where do we get such men? They leave this ship and they do their job. Then they must find this speck lost somewhere on the sea. When they find it, they have to land on its pitching deck. Where do we get such men?"- Rear Admiral George Tarrant in “The Bridges at Toko-Ri”

Yellowshirt. Fly 3. USS Saratoga. Lead on landing operations. Glad they showed a bit of rain ... but it wasn't raining, at night, in the North Atlantic

Your commentary is mostly gibberish. You have no idea what you’re talking about! (8 years US Navy, with 250 plus carrier landings, mostly in the A-6 Intruder.)

The drafting teacher I had in high school survived getting hit by the end of an arresting cable

Good video. Thumbs-up for that. Lots of errors, though, like erroneous nomenclature, a back-up arresting cable at the bow, lowering the hook on final, crosswind landings on a carrier, and the catapult being hydraulic.

Never been in the US military but even I know when landing on a carrier the pilot upon touch down hits the throttle just in case the arresting cable breaks or he misses it so he can have enough momentum to continue down the deck and take off for another go around and try to land again.

I was the hook runner on the FDR CVA 42 back in 61. It was an experience to say the least. Back then there was no hazardous duty pay.

It's funny reading the comments, that probably THE most important piece of information was omitted from this video - The fact that the pilots apply full throttle as soon as they hit the deck in case they miss or the cable breaks...

I was on the Ranger off the coast of Vietnam with HC 7. They had put me in charge of the Line division. We had 5 CH-3s that were used for SAR missions into Nam or off shore. So it was time to load everything and everybody into the helos and go to the USS Constellation. I was the last plane captain left when they loaded all the rest of cruise boxes and remaining maintenance crew into the chopper. I got him started and climbed in the last seat. The pilot tried twice to get off the deck but came slamming down. I figure he asked them to turn into the wind and then they went into a sharp right turn. He gave her full up on the collective and over the side we went. As we flew toward the Connie just above the wave tops I'm wondering if he's just gonna fly right into the damn hanger deck. At the last possible second he gave her full up again and we climbed up and slammed down on the flight deck. I was due to get out in a month and figure I'd never see home again. LOL Navy puts the crazy pilots in the freakin helos.

Don't forget, pilots get ONLY TWO (2) ejections before they are permanently grounded.

The pilot does not have to do anything to eject. He does not have to unbuckle his harness or remove the canopy. All he does is pull the ejection handle above his head or below his legs if hs is pulling to much G. Pulling the handle sets in motion automatic ejection. When the hadness is pulled it releases the firing pin on the back of the ejection seat. But a split second before that all of the 0.6 and 0.8 ohm mini dets in the canopy fire electrically and automatically blowing the canopy off just before the 3 extending tubes at the back of the seat fire and lift of at 80 feet per second. If for some reason the canopy does not release.....good by buddy. The seat leaves the plane and spins in the air one and a half times before releasing the 5 inch rogue shuts the pulls the main shuts out of the bag. Ok. Good 😮😅😊

Jets and prop aircraft so not land at full speed. Only once they touch the deck or get a wave off they go to full power. Why? So if they miss the wire they can easily take off again. It takes time for engines ro spool up. No one calls the flight deck a runway. It's a flight deck.

When I watched this I couldn't believe the sloppy safety procedures. When in 1971 I was on board 3 Aircraft Carriers no one was allowed to be out in front of the ground support equipment and I see several flight deck crewman were injured by the arresting cable boke. Has the new navy gotten so sloppy?

Scary crash video my husband was a part of. F18 crash on USS JOHN F KENNEDY. Thankfully the cable didn't snap.

My last west pac cruise 14 people die of different things we were out on that cruise for 10 1/2 months doing fly ops is a very danger job, and it is not a very forgiving job. I did 22 years total in then years you see some things that you would like to forget also on the other hand I got to see about 3/4 of the world and had some fun time and have some great friends for life.

Back when Moby Dick was a minnow, the Cats (7:40) were steam powered (not hydraulic) when I was aboard Carrier CV-62.. I worked primarily in Arresting gear where all the "Hydraulics were. i can still see the steam coming up through the deck. trust me , it is steam launching da planes.

The arresting cable has to have the correct tension. If it's too tight it will snap off the planes hook. If too loose, then it won't stop the plane in time.