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| Date: | Thursday 28 May 1959 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  North American FJ-3M Fury (F-86E) |
| Owner/operator: | United States Navy |
| Registration: | 139248 |
| MSN: | 215-39 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Other fatalities: | 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | E of Jacksonville, FL -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | |
| carrier Essex (CV-9) |
Crashed into other planes and cartwheeled across the deck of carrier Essex, followed by explosions and fire. Pilot Lt James C. Steele and his plane went into the water and was lost. Six planes where burned or badly damaged and the carrier had considerable damage. One ship crewman was killed and 21 injured, three serious. One died later.
I was in flight-deck control when this plane crashed. As the plane was descending it dropped below the glide slope. The pilot pulled the nose up and may have added power but too late. The right wing stalled and the plane turned hard right and landed, pointing almost 90 degrees from the center line. (In my opinion the pilot probably move the control stick left which lowered the right aileron, causing more drag which caused further right roll. Instead, he should initially have applied hard left rudder, driving the right wing hard left, creating more lift and stop it from stalling.) It went through the nose of a parked FJ-3 and struck an F4D, pushing it and another F4D onto a third F4D, all parked immediately behind the Island. It did not cartwheel but went strait over the side behind the island and sunk immediately. Two enlisted men under the wing of a parked AD6, aft of the parked FJ-3 were splashed with burning fuel which was the cause of their deaths.
Sources:
The Evening Independent 29 May 1959, p12A
https://www.navysite.de/cv/cv9.htm
Robert Apthorpe AT2, VF13, 12 September, 2024
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 29-Mar-2015 16:52 | TB | Added |
| 27-Oct-2017 07:46 | TB | Updated [Date, Aircraft type, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Phase, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Plane category, ] |
| 27-Oct-2017 13:05 | TB | Updated [Aircraft type, Location, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, ] |
| 06-Nov-2017 21:03 | TB | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
| 11-Nov-2017 20:45 | TB | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
| 23-May-2019 21:24 | TB | Updated [Aircraft type, ] |
| 27-Dec-2021 16:17 | TB | Updated [Aircraft type, Cn, Narrative, ] |
| 30-Mar-2022 07:58 | TB | Updated [Other fatalities, Narrative, ] |
| 13-Sep-2024 06:35 | Robert Apthorpe | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
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