Bravo Zulu

Ltjg. Joel Gow and Ltjg. Rich Prescott of Strike Training Squadron Nine were on an early fam stage, training-syllabus flight. Their T-45C Goshawk ingested a large bird shortly after takeoff from runway 1R at NAS Meridian, Miss. Passing through 1,000 feet AGL and 210 knots, with student Ltjg. Prescott at the controls in the front seat, a turkey buzzard glanced off the left forward side of the front windscreen and went directly into the left intake. They heard a loud bang, immediately followed by a significant decrease in thrust. At the same time, the EGT spiked to indicate an overtemp condition, and the EGT-rpm warning light illuminated. Ltjg. Gow, a SERGRAD flight instructor who only had been winged six months earlier, took the controls. He started a gentle left-hand turn back to the airfield and declared an emergency with departure control. Multiple caution lights were on, and the EGT remained pegged. Noticing a continual loss of thrust as they approached the field, Ltjg. Gow contacted tower and made a split-second decision to land on runway 19L and to hold off configuring the aircraft for landing until the last possible moment. As he wrapped up his turn to land on the same runway (in reverse) he just had departed, Ltjg. Gow had Ltjg. Prescott drop the gear, while he extended the flaps and concentrated on landing. With a quick review of the landing checklist, the new instructor pilot touched down. While fast, and with about 4,000 feet of runway remaining, he used max braking and dropped the arresting hook to take the long-field gear. Still in the gear, Ltjg. Gow directed his student to execute an emergency shutdown. They safed their ejection seats, unstrapped, secured the batteries, and quickly climbed out. Postflight inspection showed the first stage of the compressor had shed at least one entire blade, and the engine rapidly was destroying itself. They probably were only seconds away from catastrophic failure when they shut down. From bird ingestion to arrestment was less than four minutes. Ltjg. Gow had less than 313.9 total flight hours, only 65 of which were as a winged aviator. His quick and decisive action following the bird strike, and solid crew coordination, saved the aircraft. View the HUD replay on our website.

A video of Ltjg. Gow giving a debrief of this incident, along with the HUD replay, is available on our website at: www.safetycenter.navy.mil/media/gallery/videos/ aviation/default.htm.

VT-9

From left Ltjg. Prescott and, Ltjg Gow.