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Lincoln Prepares for President's Landing

Aired May 01, 2003 - 13:21   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: Let's go back to the deck of the carrier Abraham Lincoln where Frank Buckley is standing by in -- from a wonderful vantage point for a journalist. This is the LSO station, landing safety officer. Frank is wearing a vest there. He can probably talk a plane down by now, he's been on aircraft carriers so much, right, Frank?
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, sir, I don't think I can do that, but I can at least watch with you and the viewers. Again, we are at the LSO platform, and we are right behind T.J. Flannery (ph) and Joe Barnes (ph). They are both lieutenant commanders. They are the LSOs, and if we look over their shoulder here, you can see on final right now a C-2 Greyhound. That is the COD aircraft, known as the carrier on-board delivery. It's on final approach here. Let me just quickly ask Commander Barnes (ph) what's happening now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's just about to call a ball here, any second.

BUCKLEY: And when he calls the ball, that means he'll be three- quarters of a mile out. That means that he can see the meat ball that will tell him glide slope, that he's in control. Let's hear what happens now. Commander, tell us how delicate this particular moment is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are pretty -- you got to watch him pretty closely here, and just make sure he stays safe -- there you go, so you can hear him call the ball.

BUCKLEY: OK. So that means he's about 15 seconds away now. We can actually watch the COD come in. This is actually one of the aircraft that we landed in when we came aboard this aircraft carrier, that's how we always get aboard aircraft carriers. And here it comes now. It's coming right toward our position here. It will land right in front of us.

It will get very noisy in a second. And here comes the C-2, right by the platform. And there it goes. It caught the three wire, which is an ideal landing. They -- that's what the planes always try to aim for. The one wire is too close to the ramp, the four is too far. Commander, what do you think? How did that COD do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty good. T.J. (ph) just called a pass, a little high coming out of the way. He drifted a little bit left there in close, but handled it real well. And a very nice COD pass.

BUCKLEY: All right. Commander Flannery (ph), are you going to give him the OK three wire? What's the grade?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little high coming down all the way, OK three.

BUCKLEY: All right. All of the aircraft -- thanks, gentlemen. Appreciate that insight. All of the aircraft, Miles, that land on an aircraft carrier get graded, every single time they come down.

Really, an incredible thing for them to allow us this access to see that aircraft landing here, from this particular vantage point. And again, this is exactly what the president will be experiencing in about an hour and a half or so when he approaches in the S-3 Viking. He will be guided in by these two gentlemen as he approaches the aircraft carrier and lands right here on this deck.

O'BRIEN: Now, we should tell folks what happens as they come down -- just as soon as they hit the deck, they gun the throttles in case they don't -- that tail hook does not capture one of those wires, one of those four wires there, and that allows the plane to go off the other end. That is called a bolter. How often -- maybe these guys can tell you, how often are there bolters on aircraft carriers these days?

BUCKLEY: Well, I can tell you, Miles, just from my experience on the Constellation during the Iraqi conflict, on other aircraft carriers that I've been on, it happens just about at every event, that is, every time aircraft take off, launch and recover, there's going to be a bolter or two. It happens so frequently that yesterday when we flew on in our COD, we bolted.

We hit the deck, as you said, the -- as we said, the COD went to full power, and it's an interesting experience because when you're in the COD, you're flying backwards. We hit, the tail hook -- you can actually physically feel it and hear it dragging along the deck. As we watch another COD on approach. We'll actually be able to see this thing coming in. It is just a few seconds out, so if you will stay with us, we'll get to watch another COD come in. And I'll, again, describe the sensation. As we hit, you can actually hear the tail hook dragging along. And they say that if you hear it, that that's -- for too long, obviously, you're about to take off again, and that's exactly what happened to us yesterday. We hit the deck. We heard the tail hook dragging along, and then you hear the engines go to full power. And suddenly you find yourself lifting off again. It's an incredible dynamic experience. A lot of fun for someone who likes to fly. A little scary for people who don't. And a little sickening for people who get air sickness.

We see this COD -- the next COD on final here. You can see it's, once again, just a little bit -- ways out. Commander, has he called the ball yet?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not quite, any second now.

BUCKLEY: All right. And we'll try to listen in here to the actual call. Let me get a -- yes, let's put it up and let's hear what the pilot will be saying. We haven't heard the call yet, but it will come at any second now because he's very close here. Again -- OK, so he has called the ball, you can see the C-2 coming on final here from the LSO platform aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Again, the significance here is that all aircraft coming onto an aircraft carrier do this, and President Bush will be doing this in about an hour and a half.

Here comes the C-2, coming right by our spot. Let's see if it catches a wire. Looks like he got the one wire there. And you can see, he goes to full power -- or the four wire, I'm sorry. He went to full power -- and you can see that the aircraft goes all the way to the end of the deck there. That aircraft wants to take off when it hits the deck because it's to full power. The wind is coming across the bow at about -- what do we got, 26 knots? So that was the four wire. It wasn't the three wire that we saw just a second ago. Gentlemen, what kind of a grade is he going to get?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That will get a fair pass, still pretty nice, safe pass, but not quite as good. He got pretty high there, lucky to stop on that pass, but pretty good.

BUCKLEY: Well, gentlemen, we really appreciate your letting us see this, and show this to the viewers. Really, an incredible moment. Thank you very much. Miles, we'll throw it back to you.

O'BRIEN: All right. Frank, real quickly because we're out of time and they're going to kill me. When you had that experience, that bolter, were you scared?

BUCKLEY: I wasn't. I kind of enjoyed it a lot. And I've done it twice.

O'BRIEN: All right, two-time bolter, Frank Buckley.

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 May 1, 2003 - 13:21   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go back to the deck of the carrier Abraham Lincoln where Frank Buckley is standing by in -- from a wonderful vantage point for a journalist. This is the LSO station, landing safety officer. Frank is wearing a vest there. He can probably talk a plane down by now, he's been on aircraft carriers so much, right, Frank?
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, sir, I don't think I can do that, but I can at least watch with you and the viewers. Again, we are at the LSO platform, and we are right behind T.J. Flannery (ph) and Joe Barnes (ph). They are both lieutenant commanders. They are the LSOs, and if we look over their shoulder here, you can see on final right now a C-2 Greyhound. That is the COD aircraft, known as the carrier on-board delivery. It's on final approach here. Let me just quickly ask Commander Barnes (ph) what's happening now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's just about to call a ball here, any second.

BUCKLEY: And when he calls the ball, that means he'll be three- quarters of a mile out. That means that he can see the meat ball that will tell him glide slope, that he's in control. Let's hear what happens now. Commander, tell us how delicate this particular moment is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are pretty -- you got to watch him pretty closely here, and just make sure he stays safe -- there you go, so you can hear him call the ball.

BUCKLEY: OK. So that means he's about 15 seconds away now. We can actually watch the COD come in. This is actually one of the aircraft that we landed in when we came aboard this aircraft carrier, that's how we always get aboard aircraft carriers. And here it comes now. It's coming right toward our position here. It will land right in front of us.

It will get very noisy in a second. And here comes the C-2, right by the platform. And there it goes. It caught the three wire, which is an ideal landing. They -- that's what the planes always try to aim for. The one wire is too close to the ramp, the four is too far. Commander, what do you think? How did that COD do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty good. T.J. (ph) just called a pass, a little high coming out of the way. He drifted a little bit left there in close, but handled it real well. And a very nice COD pass.

BUCKLEY: All right. Commander Flannery (ph), are you going to give him the OK three wire? What's the grade?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little high coming down all the way, OK three.

BUCKLEY: All right. All of the aircraft -- thanks, gentlemen. Appreciate that insight. All of the aircraft, Miles, that land on an aircraft carrier get graded, every single time they come down.

Really, an incredible thing for them to allow us this access to see that aircraft landing here, from this particular vantage point. And again, this is exactly what the president will be experiencing in about an hour and a half or so when he approaches in the S-3 Viking. He will be guided in by these two gentlemen as he approaches the aircraft carrier and lands right here on this deck.

O'BRIEN: Now, we should tell folks what happens as they come down -- just as soon as they hit the deck, they gun the throttles in case they don't -- that tail hook does not capture one of those wires, one of those four wires there, and that allows the plane to go off the other end. That is called a bolter. How often -- maybe these guys can tell you, how often are there bolters on aircraft carriers these days?

BUCKLEY: Well, I can tell you, Miles, just from my experience on the Constellation during the Iraqi conflict, on other aircraft carriers that I've been on, it happens just about at every event, that is, every time aircraft take off, launch and recover, there's going to be a bolter or two. It happens so frequently that yesterday when we flew on in our COD, we bolted.

We hit the deck, as you said, the -- as we said, the COD went to full power, and it's an interesting experience because when you're in the COD, you're flying backwards. We hit, the tail hook -- you can actually physically feel it and hear it dragging along the deck. As we watch another COD on approach. We'll actually be able to see this thing coming in. It is just a few seconds out, so if you will stay with us, we'll get to watch another COD come in. And I'll, again, describe the sensation. As we hit, you can actually hear the tail hook dragging along. And they say that if you hear it, that that's -- for too long, obviously, you're about to take off again, and that's exactly what happened to us yesterday. We hit the deck. We heard the tail hook dragging along, and then you hear the engines go to full power. And suddenly you find yourself lifting off again. It's an incredible dynamic experience. A lot of fun for someone who likes to fly. A little scary for people who don't. And a little sickening for people who get air sickness.

We see this COD -- the next COD on final here. You can see it's, once again, just a little bit -- ways out. Commander, has he called the ball yet?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not quite, any second now.

BUCKLEY: All right. And we'll try to listen in here to the actual call. Let me get a -- yes, let's put it up and let's hear what the pilot will be saying. We haven't heard the call yet, but it will come at any second now because he's very close here. Again -- OK, so he has called the ball, you can see the C-2 coming on final here from the LSO platform aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Again, the significance here is that all aircraft coming onto an aircraft carrier do this, and President Bush will be doing this in about an hour and a half.

Here comes the C-2, coming right by our spot. Let's see if it catches a wire. Looks like he got the one wire there. And you can see, he goes to full power -- or the four wire, I'm sorry. He went to full power -- and you can see that the aircraft goes all the way to the end of the deck there. That aircraft wants to take off when it hits the deck because it's to full power. The wind is coming across the bow at about -- what do we got, 26 knots? So that was the four wire. It wasn't the three wire that we saw just a second ago. Gentlemen, what kind of a grade is he going to get?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That will get a fair pass, still pretty nice, safe pass, but not quite as good. He got pretty high there, lucky to stop on that pass, but pretty good.

BUCKLEY: Well, gentlemen, we really appreciate your letting us see this, and show this to the viewers. Really, an incredible moment. Thank you very much. Miles, we'll throw it back to you.

O'BRIEN: All right. Frank, real quickly because we're out of time and they're going to kill me. When you had that experience, that bolter, were you scared?

BUCKLEY: I wasn't. I kind of enjoyed it a lot. And I've done it twice.

O'BRIEN: All right, two-time bolter, Frank Buckley.

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