Hot Pit from Hell

Hot Pit from Hell

By CDR Ed Berry, USN (Ret.)

At 600lbs of gas, we called for the hot pit, we had been in the air for two hours. We received a green deck and landed with about 440 lbs. I gave the signal to start the hot pit. I watched the hose played out by the crew, the nozzle plugged in, and a signal that we were ready to start. I saw the gate valve turned and waited for my fuel gauge, now at 220lbs, to begin to increase.

I saw a positive rise in the fuel quantity and glanced out the rearview mirror just in time to see the hose pop out of the nozzle. Luckily, the Sailor was holding the hose and leaning on it a bit when it popped out. He glanced up at the jet exhaust (1200 Centigrade) and pulled the hose to the deck and started crawling back to the end of the flight deck. It was forming a pool and I needed to get off the deck as soon as possible. I motioned for the chocks and chains and no one moved. They hadn’t seen what happened yet. I motioned again and said NOW. At this point, the Chief realized what was wrong and I got untethered and took off without permission.

I, once again, had 440 lbs of gas. I told the copilot to get out the ditching checklist and called the ship. Once I was off the deck, the crash crew saw the problem and began washing the fuel off the flight deck. I asked the Captain to man the lifeboat, but not lower it unless I had to ditch. He’d already taken care of that and I stayed on the starboard side of the ship, about a quarter mile behind the ship, so as not to have any parts of the helo hit the ship if I ditched.

It looked as if the deck was clear of fuel so I asked for a green deck. “Not yet” was the answer, as fuel had gotten on the deck below the flight deck. The Captain and the Det OIC were afraid of a cloud of fumes I’d have to fly through that might be catastrophic. Needless to say, I was able to get safely aboard. It was strange to see the nozzle still attached to the helo when I landed. Further flights were canceled for the day as we all had to let what happened sink in and think about what we could have done better.

A number of features of the helo and the ship need to be understood. Shutting the fuel on or off was not instantaneous. The fuel got to the flight deck under pressure and was turned on and off via a gate valve. It took about 20 turns to open or close. Had it been a ball valve it would be almost instantaneous. The ship had about a three degree list to starboard due to the sea state and course. This pulled the fuel into the starboard rear corner of the flight deck. It pooled at the coaming and started to wash down below to the main deck as the pool overflowed the coaming. When I landed, I had 225 lbs of gas left.

This was the only time I have ever had this happen and haven’t heard of it from anyone else. The hose was brand new and I personally inspected it before we departed CONUS. But, this is how you go from “It’s a great day to fly” to the “Hot Pit From Hell.”