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CNN Sunday Morning

Take Offs, Landings Dangerous for Navy Pilots

Aired June 02, 2002 - 07:48   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In this war on terrorism, carrier based aircraft fly in support of coalition ground troops in Afghanistan. The airstrikes are quite dangerous, and so is taking off and landing.

CNN's Frank Buckley reports from the U.S.S. John Stennis in the Arabian Sea.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After missions that can last more than six hours in the air, the aircraft come home. The flight deck of the John C. Stennis is ready for recovery.

(on camera): Aircraft returning to the carrier have to land on a runway that is brutally short. The entire landing area is only about 450 feet long for an aircraft that is traveling at approximately 150 miles per hour. Arresting gear on the deck make the landing possible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basically, it's a controlled crash.

BUCKLEY (voice-over): That arresting gear is made up of four cables, strung across the flight deck. A tail hook dangles from the rear of the aircraft. As the plane hits the deck, the tail hook snags the cable, bringing it to a dead stop in less than three seconds.

The tail hook has been around since the earliest carrier landings. And the process of recovering aircraft has been refined and perfected over decades of trial and error. The pilot is guided to landing by the landing signal officer, or LSO. They also rate each trap as these arrested landings are called. Any of the four cables will stop the plane, but ideally, a pilot will trap the third cable. The runway is simply too short to handle a landing without the flyers, which is why pilots gun their engines to full power as soon as their wheels hit the deck. If they miss the wires, it's a touch and go. And they speed off to try again. This, they call the boulder (ph).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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