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Interview with Retired Navy Captain Alec Fraser

Aired April 01, 2003 - 15:51   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Miles O'Brien at the CNN Center in Atlanta, and I'm joined by retired Navy Captain Alec Fraser. And we're going to talk about a pair of Navy pilots onboard the USS Constellation who are undoubtedly very grateful and happy pilots today. They had a close call yesterday.
We want to talk a little bit about the hazards of aircraft carrier duty, unrelated to the strike missions. First of all, a flat top, as you'd call it, is a dangerous place. Isn't it Alec?

CAPT. ALEC FRASER (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Right, Miles. There's a lot going on.

O'BRIEN: And, by the way, we're watching the rescue.

FRASER: We're watching the rescue. So this is the good news. These guys are good, because not only did they perform their mission, but when an emergency arose, they knew how to respond to it and they are alive because of it.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's first of all talk about the aircraft, the S-3 Viking. Any sub -- of course submarines are not really in play in this conflict. What are they used for in this particular conflict?

FRASER: Well, in this particular role it's being used as a refueling aircraft in order to protect planes returning to the carrier that are low on fuel. But it also can be used for anti-surface, looking for other ships, and looking for submarines, or doing an electronic warfare.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's do aircraft carrier landings 101 to explain what's going on. This incident occurred during the landing. This is a pretty good depiction of what's going on.

You'll see these cables right along there. It's kind of hard for me to keep up with it. Of course you see the tail hook there, right?

FRASER: Right. Here's the tail hook. There it is catching the cable.

O'BRIEN: Right there.

FRASER: And it stops. But the thing you can't tell -- and we won't have a picture of this until later -- is it's going to full power. In case that hook doesn't catch, off it goes.

O'BRIEN: So the minute you land it gets gunned to full power. It's got to be quite a G shock when you land and do that.

FRASER: Well, it's called a controlled crash when it comes in. And that's why you notice the landing gear on Navy craft are a lot stronger than other type of airplanes because of that crash.

O'BRIEN: All right. Now, let's get situated on top of the deck here. I don't know how many acres it is. Actually, if you could back up and give us that first image, please. The wide shot looking down. If you could give us that shot?

We're trying to get -- OK. First of all, there are two places where aircraft are launched, right? Two runways. One slightly at an angle to the other. Give us a sense, first of all, of what was going on the deck when that all was going down.

FRASER: This particular deck, just to set the scene, has two S- 3s getting ready to launch. Because these are the refueling aircraft, or the surface search aircraft, and the rescue helicopter is already up in the air. It probably took the picture.

And then, right behind those two S-3s, if we can take my circles off, are the launch for the cycle, which are some EA-6Bs, F-18, F-14 -- are back in the back, behind the other planes. And once they launch, then the aircraft's side angle deck is cleared for landing. You always have to have a deck ready to land, a refueling plane in the air, and a hilo (ph) in the air at the same time.

O'BRIEN: All right. Now that next shot, we can show you all about these after burners that we're telling you about. Actually, this one doesn't show it. There's the S-3.

FRASER: Well, they are going to go to after burner here to start, to take off. And then when they land, this isn't an S-3, but take a look at that.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: F-18. Right in there you see those after burners going. So that's landing and that's full power. And what happened apparently during this landing, somehow as they went to full power, something veered off.

FRASER: Something probably worked wrong on the landing gear. It veered off the side. The guys are trained to be able to respond quickly to emergencies like this. They pulled their ejection seats. It's primed to go up from a dead still to take them up high enough, their parachutes open, and then they can come down safely.

O'BRIEN: All's well that ends well. Alec Fraser, retired Navy captain, thanks very much. Appreciate it. We'll be back with more in just a bit. Stay with us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired April 1, 2003 - 15:51   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Miles O'Brien at the CNN Center in Atlanta, and I'm joined by retired Navy Captain Alec Fraser. And we're going to talk about a pair of Navy pilots onboard the USS Constellation who are undoubtedly very grateful and happy pilots today. They had a close call yesterday.
We want to talk a little bit about the hazards of aircraft carrier duty, unrelated to the strike missions. First of all, a flat top, as you'd call it, is a dangerous place. Isn't it Alec?

CAPT. ALEC FRASER (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Right, Miles. There's a lot going on.

O'BRIEN: And, by the way, we're watching the rescue.

FRASER: We're watching the rescue. So this is the good news. These guys are good, because not only did they perform their mission, but when an emergency arose, they knew how to respond to it and they are alive because of it.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's first of all talk about the aircraft, the S-3 Viking. Any sub -- of course submarines are not really in play in this conflict. What are they used for in this particular conflict?

FRASER: Well, in this particular role it's being used as a refueling aircraft in order to protect planes returning to the carrier that are low on fuel. But it also can be used for anti-surface, looking for other ships, and looking for submarines, or doing an electronic warfare.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's do aircraft carrier landings 101 to explain what's going on. This incident occurred during the landing. This is a pretty good depiction of what's going on.

You'll see these cables right along there. It's kind of hard for me to keep up with it. Of course you see the tail hook there, right?

FRASER: Right. Here's the tail hook. There it is catching the cable.

O'BRIEN: Right there.

FRASER: And it stops. But the thing you can't tell -- and we won't have a picture of this until later -- is it's going to full power. In case that hook doesn't catch, off it goes.

O'BRIEN: So the minute you land it gets gunned to full power. It's got to be quite a G shock when you land and do that.

FRASER: Well, it's called a controlled crash when it comes in. And that's why you notice the landing gear on Navy craft are a lot stronger than other type of airplanes because of that crash.

O'BRIEN: All right. Now, let's get situated on top of the deck here. I don't know how many acres it is. Actually, if you could back up and give us that first image, please. The wide shot looking down. If you could give us that shot?

We're trying to get -- OK. First of all, there are two places where aircraft are launched, right? Two runways. One slightly at an angle to the other. Give us a sense, first of all, of what was going on the deck when that all was going down.

FRASER: This particular deck, just to set the scene, has two S- 3s getting ready to launch. Because these are the refueling aircraft, or the surface search aircraft, and the rescue helicopter is already up in the air. It probably took the picture.

And then, right behind those two S-3s, if we can take my circles off, are the launch for the cycle, which are some EA-6Bs, F-18, F-14 -- are back in the back, behind the other planes. And once they launch, then the aircraft's side angle deck is cleared for landing. You always have to have a deck ready to land, a refueling plane in the air, and a hilo (ph) in the air at the same time.

O'BRIEN: All right. Now that next shot, we can show you all about these after burners that we're telling you about. Actually, this one doesn't show it. There's the S-3.

FRASER: Well, they are going to go to after burner here to start, to take off. And then when they land, this isn't an S-3, but take a look at that.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: F-18. Right in there you see those after burners going. So that's landing and that's full power. And what happened apparently during this landing, somehow as they went to full power, something veered off.

FRASER: Something probably worked wrong on the landing gear. It veered off the side. The guys are trained to be able to respond quickly to emergencies like this. They pulled their ejection seats. It's primed to go up from a dead still to take them up high enough, their parachutes open, and then they can come down safely.

O'BRIEN: All's well that ends well. Alec Fraser, retired Navy captain, thanks very much. Appreciate it. We'll be back with more in just a bit. Stay with us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com