On March 8th, 2002, just a few years before they were retired, an A Grumman F-14A Tomcat, BuNo 158618, of VF-211, based at NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia crew found itself in a really dangerous situation. Upon landing on a carrier called USS John C. Stennis, the tail hook of the F-14 broke off sending the plane and the crew off the deck.
The Navy said both crew members were pulled from the water by a rescue helicopter shortly after the accident. Neither appeared to be seriously injured
They were not grounded as they did exactly what they were trained to do, despite the outcome.
What happened is the F-14 lost a couple of hundred pounds after the crew, their chairs and canopy departed from the aircraft, making it lighter hence it flying away by itself
There are two videos of the incident below. One is low at the bottom of the flight deck clearly showing the tail hook breaking off and hurling toward the camera.
The other shows the incident from the bridge and the plane coming off the deck again.
