That time a C-2 Greyhound nearly went overboard USS Nimitz

Landing on an aircraft carrier in rough seas can be quite dangerous

On Oct. 9, 2001, a C-2A Greyhound COD (Carrier On board Delivery) plane carrying Argentine dignitaries aboard experienced a mishap during a trap landing on the USS Nimitz: the left leg of the main landing gear went overboard and the aircraft almost fell in the ocean.

The PLAT (Pilot Landing Aid Television) footage clearly shows the pilot struggling to properly align the aircraft to the flight deck from the start of the final approach. A series of corrections, with a hard one right before touched down caused the aircraft to veer off the flight deck.

Fortunately, the C-2 got one of the wires and was able to come to a stop before falling overboard.

C-2 overboard landing gear

Here’s a video of the mishap (click this link as the video can’t be embedded out of Youtube).

http://youtu.be/wkH32mf_iVE

H/T to @Alert5 for the link to the YT video.

 

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About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.