On Oct 13, 2008, at 12:04 AM, Brian Lawson wrote:
> I stand corrected about the cause of the missile launch which started > the Forrestal fire. All the investigations into the incident report > that it was an electrical surge which occurred when the F-4's power > was switched from external to internal systems. They also report that > no ship's personnel were responsible for what happened. Well, per the Navy incident report it was a chain of events, one of which was human: The safety pin on the missile, attached to a long nylon flag, was pulled out by the wind. The pigtail connection between the missile and the plane's systems was, counter to standing Navy orders, connected before the plane was attached to the catapult. After a plane had been launched earlier without the attachment done and they sent up an unarmed aircraft, there had been an analysis of the incident, and a recommendation had been made to connect the pigtails before the catapult hookup. It wasn't yet official policy, but the ground crews had implemented it immediately. Then there was the surge when the F4 switched over (which connecting the pigtail later in the launch sequence had always avoided) that actually fired the missile. A major contributing factor was the poor fire training and response by the crew. Most of the well-trained fire crews were killed when the bombs cooked off, and so the untrained regular crew took over. As a result , ALL navy personnel are trained in firefighting techniques today...they still use film from the 'Forrest Fire' as training aids. -- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "StrataList-OT" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/StrataList-OT?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
