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From Neil Jennings:

The gent who wrote the Ebaums account completely does not know what he’s talking about.  His story is so full of holes that I seriously doubt he has the qualifications he claims.  More about his story later.  I was the pilot in the front seat of the jet which is featured on the video, and here’s what really happened:

My RIO and I launched on a mission to fly low-altitude high-speed fly by’s of the USS JPJ.  Our mission was to give the JPJ an airborne target to detect, track, classify, and simulate launch against.  We departed the airspace of the USS Lincoln and were “handed off” to the JPJ for their control.  We were operating in a clear sector and were working with another VF-213 aircraft which was assigned the same mission.  Basically, we and the other aircraft were taking turns making low altitude passes by the JPJ, all for the benefit of their training.

On our first fly by of the JPJ, something went wrong right as I initiated a climbing right hand turn, up and away from the ship.  Lacking any better explanation the aircraft “blew up.”  The accident board fixed blame on a problem with one of the engine’s oil systems.  They found this possible cause in a statistical search of Navy Safety Center mishap records.  However, neither they, nor I, nor anyone else knows exactly what went wrong.  At the time of the mishap we were around 800 feet and were traveling 600+ knots.

My RIO initiated ejection somewhere around two seconds after our aircraft spontaneously combusted.  We were tumbling wildly out of control, perilously low, and there was fire all around us.  Fortunately, my RIO’s quick actions saved both of our lives.  By the grace of God we survived, and although we both suffered burns his were far worse than mine---his seat in the aircraft being closer to the source of fire.

The JPJ steamed smartly over to where we were bobbing in the water, comfortably sitting in our grotesquely small rafts.  At that moment of the incident we were not enjoying the feeling of salt water on fresh burns.  The JPJ launched a motor whale boat, got us out of the water, and took us aboard the JPJ for some quick first aid and a short visit with some of the crew.  A helo from the Lincoln was dispatched.  It picked us up and flew us back to the carrier where we spent the next few days under the microscope of a comprehensive physical evaluation and many, many hours of mishap board interviews.  I thank God for the video tape which documented the incident.  Without it I was going to have trouble explaining why we failed to bring our $30mil jet back to the carrier with us.

Some misstated items from the first post regarding this incident:

1.       Our location at the time was not classified.  We were heading home from a six-month deployment and were 800 miles west of Guam.  My experience is that when someone throws out the “I don’t know how much I can say” caveat, it means they either don’t know what they’re talking about, or they’re lying, or they’re trying to over-dramatize a boring story. 

2.       The squadron was not transitioning to the “B” engines.  We had the “A” jets, and at the time there was no plan to upgrade.  A couple of years later VF-213 was sent to the East Coast and was transitioned to “D” aircraft.  As of today, they’re flying Super Hornets. 

3.       Stacey Bates was in the squadron, but he didn’t crash this particular jet.  His first (of two) crashes is an entirely different story, which I won’t bore you with here.  Again, I suspect that the gent who commented on this video wasn’t on the Lincoln at the time of this mishap, or he would have known that. 

4.       CATCC owns the airspace out to 50 nautical miles, not 60, as noted by the author.  This is very basic knowledge that anyone working aircraft control aboard a carrier would not misstate. 

5.       Pilot error had nothing to do with this particular crash.  You can try as hard as you want, but I can’t think of a single way to make a Tomcat blow up into a thousand pieces and fall into the ocean.                

6.       A compressor stall is not something that’s going to cause a jet to explode and had nothing to do with this crash.  Again, the author of the first story has no idea what he’s talking about. 

The author of the Ebaums post should stick to what he knows best and keep flipping those burgers at Micky-D’s---not that there’s anything wrong with that.