Got the rest of my shots, I had to wait in line for over 2 hours. I got to bed finally at 16:00 & slept til 02:00, 2 hours late for work. While I was asleep, an F-14 came in and hit four S-3's when he landed. He hit the noses of the S-3's with his starboard wingtip."
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The "Lens" refers to the Fresnel Lens Optical Landing System (FLOLS). Because of the failure of the Lens, we rigged the MOVLAS (Manually Operated Visual Landing Aid System) as the back-up system. In this photo you can see the MOVLAS lit with the FLOLS dark behind it. (For more info on the optical landing systems click on this link)
As for the incident with the F-14 (think "Top Gun"). The LSO (Landing Signal Officer) lined up the Tomcat too far to starboard. I heard later that one of the plane's landing lights was out and that he misjudged the plane's horizontal position. The S-3's (Viking) were parked with their noses just outside the foul deck/safety line and about 6 to 12 inches of the F-14's wingtip hit the fiberglass radar dome of each Viking. Imagine seeing them pop like light bulbs as each was struck by the wing. I watched the PLAT tape of that landing numerous times during this cruise.
(Click on this link to read an interesting article from the pilot's POV of a similar night landing.)
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