Shots Across The Bow

It's a dangerous job, even when they aren't shooting at you!

A sailor took a 7 hour swim when he was swept off the flight deck of the USS Constellation by the exhaust of an EA-6B jet.
Life on a carrier is full of risks, particularly when you work on the flight deck. While I was stationed on the Nimitz we had a guy go overboard under similar circumstances. He was a new pilot, and was about to make his first night launch from the flight deck.

Since there is limited room on the flight deck, the planes parked there are often parked with their tails sticking out over the edge. As the pilot was doing his preflight walk around with his plane captain, an enlisted man who "owned" the plane, he came to some safety netting covering a what he thought was a weapons elevator shaft. During earlier daytime flights, he had seen other pilots and plane captains hop over the netting, so he decided to emulate them, and hopped over the netting.

Sadly for him, what he jumped over was the last thing between him and a 65 foot free fall into some very cold, dark water. WE sounded a man overboard, and he was recovered in less than an hour. The only thing hurt was his pride.