F6F Hellcat makes a wheels up landing and is dumped off the deck of USS Hornet in October 1944

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[@bwilliams463]

I've heard interviews with elderly veterans who served as carrier pilots in WW2, and they explained why there's so much film footage of crash landings. Apparently, when a plane was spotted coming in for a landing visibly damaged and struggling, the combat cameramen immediately set up to film it. So when the incoming pilots saw 'that damned cameraman' on the deck, they knew they were in for a rough landing.

[@jacqirius]

That's not why the cameras were there. For every critical function of the plane there is a warning light in his field of view, the pilots always knew that there was something wrong before landing The cameras are there to help with future measures in such cases for reference purposes

[@PhantomP63]

Maybe the other pilots could spot the camera crew upon pattern entry and knew one of their shipmates wasn’t about to have a good time.

[@Kurt-Wehde]

Props to the pilot for getting himself back in one piece even if the plane didn’t make it

[@rags417]

He didn't look that good as they took him away in that stretcher

[@gasperpoklukar8372]

@@rags417 I hope his back was ok later.

[@DannyBoy777777]

The aircraft did make it!

[@infantryattacks]

Grumman Iron Works.Tough birds.

[@reverseuniverse2559]

Wish I could have it ✈️

[@bensmith7536]

We've come a long way, imagine tossing a damaged Super Hornet overboard like that. A quick value check shows about $30k to $35k in 1944 for a new Hellcat is around $550k to $600k in 2024. Tossing new build replacement of about half a mill into the sea.

[@geordiedog1749]

Lend Lease fiasco comes to mind. Sea bed covered in corsairs.

[@NorthbyWest]

I thought they'd recover usable parts first, but no, immediately overboard.

[@malcolmlane-ley2044]

Having a piece of wreckage in the way of planes landing or the problems connected with trying to move it into the hangar below deck would have made that an easy decision.

[@Warmaker01]

This looks real wasteful, but American aircraft production was so insane in WWII that this practice was accepted. It was because ships arriving with brand new planes happened all the time. I've read accounts from pilots from other countries using lend-lease American planes being totally shocked. They'd see US Navy, Marine, Army Air Force squadrons with airframes having low hours and little wear and tear. Meanwhile their own lend-leased Corsairs, etc. are being worn to the bone for maximum usage. Even carriers at sea were kept up easily in their aircraft. Carriers had their own spare aircraft. There was also part of the logistic effort where cheap Escort Carriers (CVEs) were basically used to transport aircraft to the frontline units without the planes flying all the way out there. It kept down on flight hours and wear and tear of planes.

[@zxbzxbzxb1]

I guess also, if you have a badly damaged plane sitting on the flight deck, you have to shift it asap because other aircraft can't land and have limited fuel.

[@thamghoul5719]

I think it was all about keeping the deck clear while in a combat situation.

[@monza1002000]

You think this didn't happen in other navies? At Okinawa the RN/Commonwealth fleet had 18 CVs 10 of which were Escort carriers

[@cameronalexander359]

Plenty more where that came from.

[@Sedici-Competizione]

He brought her in good👍

[@drott150]

Strange how it's gear was down as it's thrown over.

[@rags417]

It looks like they used the crane to lift it up then manually dropped the gear to make it easier to maneuver before seeing if it was capable of being repaired. In the end some crew chief probably just said "total write off" and gave the okay to dump it.

[@ImThatScotty]

Surprised there was no fire. Did these things have fuel bladders?

[@Oligodendrocyte139]

Aviation Safety Net has about a dozen Hellcat losses for this month. Of them, this one looks the most probable, although far from certain: 58506 (CV-17) attacned to USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) damaged beyond repair during carrier landing Oct 12, 1944 and jettisoned offside. Pilot survived, but another pilot on deck was killed. Anyone know if that's Bunker Hill? Edit 😂 Ok, I just woke up with a hangover.......

[@daiichidoku]

the hellcat's and helldiver's geometric tail ID of small white circle below tail number indicates that this is indeed CV-12 Hornet

[@Oligodendrocyte139]

@daiichidoku I'm sure you and Karbine are right. I couldn't find a loss on Hornet in that month though. Admittedly, it was a quick scan. 👍

[@daiichidoku]

@@Oligodendrocyte139 still interesting. feel sorry for that poor pilot on the deck

[@user-ut2nl5on1q]

strong wind

[@ToddChaddingtonEsq]

didn't seem to be in much of a hurry with the stretcher, nor very solemn

[@ald1144]

Could be that he was hurt bad enough for a stretcher but not critical. Also consider if there's a back injury then bouncing him along at a run will do him no good. It leads me to wonder how hard it was to get casualties down ladders and through hatchways to sickbay.

[@johnw4659]

Waaaaait......!

[@betaorionis2164]

Why didn't they keep the Hellcat for spares?

[@hw97karbine]

At this stage in the war they had more than enough spares, while manpower and space on an aircraft carrier is at a premium, it would have not been worth the effort to recover them.

[@345mrse]

@@hw97karbine Not even bullets or ordnance?

[@healspringy6300]

@@345mrse I think they took it all out before dumping the plane into the sea

[@thamghoul5719]

It was more important to quickly clear the deck to keep operations going. They are in a fight. There is no time for salvage.