Since Joe revived this thread right after I re-watched this old clip, I figured I'd post it. This is what happens when an arresting gear snaps. Watch the guy in yellow closely.

 

i don't have the bandwidth to stream YT out here... I suspect it's the one where a Hornet parts the wire... one dude jumps the wire and another guy gets taken out. The dude who got hit and went down was a Chief with my old squadron... he lived but was medically retired a few years later.

The wire is the weakest link in the entire arresting gear system. If something goes wrong, you want the wire to break vice the aircraft of the machinery below-decks. The drawback is that people on the deck can get hurt when the wire recoils. It happens very rarely, but it happens.

 

What happens to the aircraft in this situation after it (I'm assuming) takes a swim?

 

Yeah, it goes off the end into the drink, and the pilot punches out from about 10 feet and 10 knots.

Which reminded me a bit of another video you won't be able to see, in which the BN of an A6 partially ejects through the canopy (whereupon his chute then deploys and fouls the tail), and the pilot brings it back down onto the deck



Irish Luck - Surviving Partial Ejection from A-6 Aircraft







He survived, and was back in the air in 6 months.

 

Yup, the dude was totally unconscious the entire time. The pilot couldn't do anything for him... gonna find out how good you really are at a time like that.