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The Navy has released video of the April 11 one-engine landing made by an F/A-18C aboard the USS Carl Vinson and during which the aircraft caught fire. The aircraft had undergone maintenance and was performing touch-and-go’s when one engine caught fire and was shut down in flight. Immediately after landing, the aircraft’s aft fuselage was engulfed in flames. Flight deck fire crews responded and the fire was extinguished with aqueous film forming foam. The Hornet was assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 113 and its pilot escaped the episode uninjured. Crash and Salvage leading chief, Petty Officer Benjamin Bilyeu, said in a military news release, “You can drill day-in and day-out but when the event happens, to actually see the training being as effective as it was, that was incredible and made me proud to be a sailor on the Vinson.”
The Vinson has been involved in operations Enduring Freedom and New Dawn, as deployed with the U.S. 5th Fleet. This event, in which no personnel were injured, separates itself in that aspect from a March 30 engine explosion that involved another F/A-18C. That episode occurred on the deck of the USS John C. Stennis as the jet was preparing for takeoff. The aircraft in that case was assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 101. A total of 10 sailors received injuries in the March 30 explosion. Four of them were hospitalized.
