When S-2E Tracker Plane Launched Directly Into sea Wave

When S-2E Tracker Plane Launched Directly Into sea Wave

In the below video, you can see an incident When S-2E Tracker Plane Launched Directly Into sea Wave

In 1971 an S-2E Tracker anti-submarine aircraft accidentally flew right through a wave.

The USS Ticonderoga was an Essex-class aircraft carrier

The main anti-submarine aircraft of the time, the S-2E Tracker, was a prop-driven airplane with a crew of four.

A Tracker from VS-38, “The Red Griffins”, was lined up on a bow catapult waiting to take off.

 

As carrier Launch Officers typically time catapult launches between waves, for the safety of the aircraft and the aircrews.

This time, however, a rogue wave surged just as the Tracker was taking off.

The plane disappears from view, hidden by a wall of water, and loses altitude before finally re-emerging into the view of the camera and flying on.

The plane and crew were safe, although the Tracker probably needed a good hosing down to remove corrosive seawater from…pretty much everywhere.

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One comment

  1. There’s a video of a Grumman C-2A Greyhound having the almost exact same type of problem on takeoff (can’t find the link at present)

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