It was a brisk spring Florida evening and the sun was nearing the western horizon. Clouds tip-toed across the sky and gleamed with bright reds and fiery oranges, though looming not far on the eastern horizon was the cold, dark night creeping in. Two of our birds were crippled and hangar bound although our beach detachment crew of merely 12 men and women worked very long hours to get the aircrew off the ground. Just before our OIC (officer in charge) threw in the towel for that day, during the evening maintenance meeting the radio squawked with what seemed to be some sort of distress call. The room fell dead as Senior Chief cranked the volume knob to maximum and we all perked our ears in order to confirm what we thought we heard.
What seemed like an eternity, but was a mere 60 seconds or so, the radio squawked again. The 2P (copilot) announced they were coming in for an emergency landing and the number two hydraulic system was empty. Although the F-14 crew and bird was not our own, it was part of our Carrier Air Wing and they were our brothers in essence. Five minutes later and the two aircrewmen were going through shutdown sequences and procedures. After the plane captain finished all the ground crew checks, he cleared the plane safe to check over for the ground crew to investigate the hydraulics issue. With only one of our maintenance crew having any prior F-14 experience, it took a few minutes but we were able to locate a couple of possible causes.
It turned out, the number two hydraulic system pump cavitated and leaked out. Being that the Tomcat crew was closer to us at NAS JAX than they were the JFK they made a decision to burn towards the beach. For a moment, in-between the radio squawks earlier that evening, the crew of that F-14 Tomcat were preparing for a bailout situation as the hydraulics system was reading at zero. Then, just before they punched out, with one last check the hydraulics gauge indicated just over a gallon which would be enough to control the Tomcat for an emergency beach landing.
Thanks to cool heads and following proper procedures helped the two pilots to land safely and return to the skies for honor of their country.
