F/A-18 Hornet Barricade aboard USS Nimitz

US Marine Hornet flown to a successful barricade arrestment aboard the USS Nimitz on or about October 24th, 1997 due to nose landing gear hung in the "up" position. Captain Scott Slater was the Marine aviator flying the jet. This was the first attempted barricade arrestment of an F/A-18 in Naval history. Captain Slater's fuel state at time of landing was excessively low. Credit for the successful landing goes to both pilot and the ship's crew for endless hours of training and execution of duties in a high pressure situation. This is incident had a pleasant ending; others do not. Please remember our Marines and sailors in harms way around the world today, and every day.

Semper Fidelis

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• F-18
• Hornet
• Barricade

[1bigpappy]

I was in 314 Comm/Nav for this. I remember when we first went to pull the barricade out of the hole, the fork thing that they hook up to the tractor to pull it out of the hole broke! We got it out and everything turned out ok. I think I was manning a hose on the starboard side. Good feeling to save a good pilot. S Fi

[wsslater]

@1bigpappy - thanks for the note. Thanks for your help that day. Teamwork saved me and the jet without question! I enjoyed serving with all of the Marines; the Knights were a great team and that cruise was quite an experience!

Semper Fidelis,

Fface

[takzero]

I remember this incident was kind of early in the cruise and the squadron actually fixed that aircraft while we were out to sea. It flew off the boat at the end of the cruise. I thought that was amazing.

I also remember missing Christmas and New Years that year. Now that kind of sucked.

[wsslater]

It was amazing the airframes guys fixed that jet, and we flew it home. Happy to get home with all our crew and aircraft is an understatement. Thanks for all you did. Semper Fidelis.

[takzero]

I remember this squadron VMFA-314. It's been a while, but I still remember almost every squadron on that cruise. I helped rig that barricade. I remember the countless drills that had to do. During the drill we had to rig the barricade as fast as humanly possible and we were timed, but for this real event they were telling up to take our time. I remember they kept telling up to take our time and make sure we do it right.

[wsslater]

I am very happy you guys rigged it well enough to stop me. Thanks for all you did that cruise. I likely owe my life to you guys. Semper Fidelis.

[TheMicroproductions]

Just stumbled across this. Thanks you, Sir for your service and Bravo Zulu on the flying skills.

[TXCANE]

I was on the Crash & Salvage team on this one. Pretty damn exciting that day!

[museumqueen]

It's amazing to see these in action saving lives. I happen to be one of the 6 people in the world that make these.

[themosh54]

Wow that was hairy. Thank God you made it down. Thank you for your service. I was a nuke MM on the Enterprise when this happened. We had a flight deck accident at the beginning of our deployment in November 1998 that didn't end as well. I'm glad you were OK.

[cannonshooter1]

was with 314 during Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the electric shop we had two a/c make arrested landings due to sa7 sam hits both flew back on one engine. Glad you made it back safely from this one sir. Once a Knight is Never Enough. Semper Fidelis to all the Marines of VMFA-314 past ,present and future. The Black Knights are the best Marine Fighter Attack squadron.

[cannonshooter1]

was with 314 during Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the electric shop we had two a/c make arrested landings due to sa7 sam hits both flew back on one engine. Glad you made it back safely for this one sir. Once a Knight is Never Enough. Semper Fidelis to all the Marines of VMFA-314 past ,present and future. The Black Knights are the best Marine Fighter Attack squadron.

[Ch1ney23]

Fface I have some stills from this day as your wing man Wolfey had my camera! The ship took the in flight photos of your gear hung but I did get some pretty cool shots of before the incident and with 207 in the net! Once again nice work!

Semper Fi

Lance "Chin" Casteel

[lecaleleka]

Hi wsslater,

Do you have the entire PLAT footage sequence for this F-18 barricade? If you do, could you share with us?

Thanks!

[1775Montezuma]

Fface -- good to see you here on youtube. --- Semper Fi -- Moreno (Flight Equipment)