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Man Sucked Into Jet Engine
From FamousPicturesMagazine
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| Picture Taken On: 03:41:11 Feb 20, 1991 |
Place: Flight deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt |
Behind the Camera: Deck Camera |
Picture Summary: John Bridget is shown getting sucked into an A-6E's engine |
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| First Posted:May 2, 2007 Last Updated on 2010-8-30 by Dean Lucas |
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taped, digitized and uploaded to the net. Once online it became quite famous, as its small size made for easy sharing. The footage got a second life when it was revealed that not only did the man get sucked into an engine but that he survived.
Video Breakdown
The video starts on the flight deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt and according to the camera time it's 03:41:11 Feb 20, 1991. A A-6E pilot is getting ready for take off as a trainee checks the position of the carrier launching mechanism. All this time the pilot has the engines at full throttle and as the trainee moves away the trainer, a greenshirt (Navy personal wear color coated uniforms), John Bridget, comes to make sure everything is OK. Navy personal Daniel P Streckfuss tells the story from there:
| I was attached to VFA-15 on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt during that deployment in 1991. This occurred [during Desert Storm (Desert Storm ended February 28, 1991)]. He did survive and I'm surprised the editors of that video didn't include him climbing out. What allowed him to survive was the design of the A-6 engine (the J-52). It has a long protruding 'bullet' or cone that extends in front of the first stage fans. When he was sucked in, his arm extended above his head which caused his body to wedge between the bullet and inside wall of the intake. Lucky for him, his cranial and
float coat were sucked in first causing the FOD'd engine which prompted the pilot to cut the throttle (commanded by the Shooter who moves into the frame kneeling and moving his wand up and down). It took almost 3 minutes for him to push his way out of the intake after being sucked in. Needless to say, I don't think he was seen on the flight deck for the rest of the cruise. | 
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According to the video the scene where he has bandages around his head
and his arm taped up was taken only a few hours after the incident.
After recovering from his injuries he left the Navy.
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A-6 Intruder
The A-6E Intruder, the plane who sucked in the Navy man, is a twin-engine, mid-wing attack aircraft built by Grumman Aerospace. In service between 1963 and 1996, the Intruder was designed as a replacement for the piston-engined A-1 Skyraider. A specialized electronic warfare derivative, the EA-6B Prowler, remains in service as of 2006. As the A-6 neared retirement, it was replaced at some reduction in combat radius by the multirole F/A-18 Hornet and fighter-bomber adaptations of the now also retired F-14 Tomcat.
USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71)
The video was filmed on the flight deck of USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) (known affectionately as the Big Stick or TR). It is the fourth Nimitz-class supercarrier and its call sign is Rough Rider, the name of President Theodore Roosevelt's volunteer cavalry unit during the Spanish-American War. It was launched on 27 October 1984 and saw action in the first Gulf War. On 9 June 1990, Capt. Charles S. Abbot became the ship's third Commanding Officer and on 28 December, Theodore Roosevelt and CVW-8 deployed for Operation Desert Shield. Theodore Roosevelt entered the war on 9 January 1991, eventually flying over 4,200 sorties (more than any other carrier) and dropping more than 4,800,000 pounds of ordnance before the cease-fire on 28 February.
Trivia
Getting sucked into a Jet engine "It doesn't happen very often," but "It has happened in the past." Here are some other incidents:
- Jan 01 - 2006 Mechanic sucked into jet engine -- A mechanic standing near a Boeing 737 at El Paso International Airport in Texas was sucked into one of the engines and killed.
Aug 20 2010 3:39 pm
I was there, attached to VF 41, working nights on the flight deck. The "cut engine" signal is actually done with the flashlight in the shape of a sideways figure-eight. The pilot never saw the guy go in, just knew that his engine had "fodded." Lots of people run around aircraft just before takeoff and the crew generally doesn't see them, relying on the shooter to signal when all is clear after the troubleshooters give him the OK (flashlights up). The interview was done on "The Bully Bigstick Show" the morning after. One other man on the show (the host) was the Command Master Chief, whose name escapes me at the moment. Used to have my own copy of this video but somebody borrowed it and never returned it. Taping anything off ship's TV is strictly forbidden, in fact all VCR's brought on board had to be "safety checked" during which the record function was disabled. Of course any decent tech could reverse the process, hence there was a lot of taping going on. As for the guy never going up on the roof again, I'm not sure. Generally, the idea is to get them back up there as soon as possible before they have a chance to really think about what happened. Extremely dangerous work, but statistically safer than driving down the interstae with your car!