Crash Investigations 101

[Jack Cook]

What can you figure out by studying this photo??

[maxum96]

Well, we had the bent wing birds in WWII. This was an attempt at a bent fuselage bird.

[DoraNineFan]

Since the airplane's back is broken and there's prop marks across the deck, it looks like a botched or hard landing. And there' a fire at the landing point (drop tank?) since people are running with fire bottles.

[Zachary]

A DeLorean just generated 1.21 gigawatts in its attempt to get back to the future???

[Malo83]

Wonder if the Pilot got knocked out , prop is still spinning and a crewman is running up on the wing.
Ramp Strike

[Bluedharma]

The image is called "SBDHardlanding.jpg" so that might be what happened?
Or like what was said in the movie "Goodfellas"... bing bang boom...

The roundels are pre-WW2 right? Was this prior to Pearl or early years of the war?
Roundels 1917 to 1942 ??
Fin flash was used until 1942.

Sea looks rough... Deck was pitching... Strong wind from the Port side.
He may have impacted the deck when it pitched up... and he was correcting for the wind from the left? That is why the Prop-strike "marks" goes to the Starboard?

[planeoldsteve]

Hit the back of the flight deck or fantail?

Steve

[Jack Cook]

Do you know what we do to right click'in cheaters

[Bluedharma]

Do you know what we do to right click'in cheaters

Oh Oh...

Bing! Bang! Boom!

Quick question... pre-WW2 ?

[clangjr]

The ship may not be pitched to the port side. The photographer could have taken the picture askew. The crew on the deck, other that the one guy carrying the fire extinguisher in his right hand, don't apear to be leaning to compensate. Clearly the seas are rough, but I don't know if we can be sure they deck is pithced.

[Jack Cook]

I'll fill the gaps in tonight.

[n5151ts]

ramp strike

[bdk]

Compressed L3 I'd say, but I'm not a doctor, I only play one on TV....

[Jack Cook]

This was a very hard landing by a SBD-3 of VB-5 on the USS Yorktown in Feb 1942. My understanding was that the a/c suffered flak damage on a strike in the Marshall Islands. You can see the impact point on the aft end of the flight deck which broke the SBD's back and also note the numerous impact points of the prop. The hook engaged a CDP which is good has the pilot was incapacitated by a broken back and the gunner was knocked unconscious. The Dauntless was stripped and dumped over the side of the ship. IMHO this is a amazing photo showing how frigging dangerous CV flight OPS were and still are!

[Starduster77]

Looks like it broke at the front cockpit or is that a shadow?
Good photo .