Kookaburra2011
FLEET AIR ARM DAYS: hands on heads safety signals as a Fairey Gannet arms her rockets, 1961 - Ron Marsh.
2963. This image of a rocket-laden Fairey Gannet moving to the catapult on HMAS MELBOURNE [II] in Jervis Bay, NSW, is filled with dynamic action, perhaps not all of it first evident to a layman..
Photo author Ron Marsh explains that Squadron electricians are putting 'pigtails' on the 60lb rockets [one guesses this means arming them] under the Gannets wings - but what becomes really interesting is both members of the deck crew and the pilots have their hands on their heads as the rockets are armed.
Apparently the air crew are being directed to keep their hands away from electrical switches as the rockets are armed. What very good discipline and training are evident there.
It is, Ron says, a safety measure that 'might have saved a lot of lives on USS FORRESTAL, the big American carrier ravaged by appalling fires and explosions in the Gulf of Tonkin on July 29, 1967, after a Zuni rocket mounted on a McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II aircraft was
accidently fired on the flightdeck by an electrical anomoly, dislodging and igniting a fuel drop tank on a nearby A-4 skyhawk [possibly that piloted by later presidential candidate John McCain].
In the appalling conflagration that followed, made deadly by nine bomb explosions, 134 of Forrestel's crew, mostly firemen, were killed, and 161 injured. With the armoured deck penetratged by the bomb explosions, the fire spread below and many planes and armaments were jettisoned, as well as 20 damaged ion the flight deck beyond repair.
Wikipedia's very instructive report on the USS Forrestal disaster is here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_USS_Forrestal_fire
It is interesting that HMAS MELBOURNE had such clearly defined procedures such as hands-on- heads to prevent unintended rocket ignitions six years earlier. As mentioned previously, however, the RAN did have experience with unintended rocket ignitions from Hawker Sea Fury aircraft from HMAS Sydney [III].
During exercises in 1950 there was a spate of unintended ignitions from Furies aloft, and at least one of these [maybe more] hit the New Zealand cruiser HMNZS BELLONA which was towing a target, without severe damage or casualties. At first that incident was put down to pilot error [the pilot, by the way, was a Kiwi], but it was later thought that the rockets may have been ignited by low frequency radio transmissions from the aircraft carrier.
Ron Marsh identifies a Petty Officer [AO] in the photo above as Maurie Tiffen.
Photo: Ronald L. Marsh of Brisbane, RAN 1957-1963, kindly sent on disc for the Unofficial RAN Centenary 1911-2011 Photostream.
A COMPENDIUM of links to some 350 images of HMAS MELBOURNE [II] on this Photostream begins at Pic 5444 and extends over seven entries. It starts here:
www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/6707592179/in/photostream
FLEET AIR ARM DAYS: hands on heads safety signals as a Fairey Gannet arms her rockets, 1961 - Ron Marsh.
2963. This image of a rocket-laden Fairey Gannet moving to the catapult on HMAS MELBOURNE [II] in Jervis Bay, NSW, is filled with dynamic action, perhaps not all of it first evident to a layman..
Photo author Ron Marsh explains that Squadron electricians are putting 'pigtails' on the 60lb rockets [one guesses this means arming them] under the Gannets wings - but what becomes really interesting is both members of the deck crew and the pilots have their hands on their heads as the rockets are armed.
Apparently the air crew are being directed to keep their hands away from electrical switches as the rockets are armed. What very good discipline and training are evident there.
It is, Ron says, a safety measure that 'might have saved a lot of lives on USS FORRESTAL, the big American carrier ravaged by appalling fires and explosions in the Gulf of Tonkin on July 29, 1967, after a Zuni rocket mounted on a McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II aircraft was
accidently fired on the flightdeck by an electrical anomoly, dislodging and igniting a fuel drop tank on a nearby A-4 skyhawk [possibly that piloted by later presidential candidate John McCain].
In the appalling conflagration that followed, made deadly by nine bomb explosions, 134 of Forrestel's crew, mostly firemen, were killed, and 161 injured. With the armoured deck penetratged by the bomb explosions, the fire spread below and many planes and armaments were jettisoned, as well as 20 damaged ion the flight deck beyond repair.
Wikipedia's very instructive report on the USS Forrestal disaster is here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_USS_Forrestal_fire
It is interesting that HMAS MELBOURNE had such clearly defined procedures such as hands-on- heads to prevent unintended rocket ignitions six years earlier. As mentioned previously, however, the RAN did have experience with unintended rocket ignitions from Hawker Sea Fury aircraft from HMAS Sydney [III].
During exercises in 1950 there was a spate of unintended ignitions from Furies aloft, and at least one of these [maybe more] hit the New Zealand cruiser HMNZS BELLONA which was towing a target, without severe damage or casualties. At first that incident was put down to pilot error [the pilot, by the way, was a Kiwi], but it was later thought that the rockets may have been ignited by low frequency radio transmissions from the aircraft carrier.
Ron Marsh identifies a Petty Officer [AO] in the photo above as Maurie Tiffen.
Photo: Ronald L. Marsh of Brisbane, RAN 1957-1963, kindly sent on disc for the Unofficial RAN Centenary 1911-2011 Photostream.
A COMPENDIUM of links to some 350 images of HMAS MELBOURNE [II] on this Photostream begins at Pic 5444 and extends over seven entries. It starts here:
www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/6707592179/in/photostream