1.5 year old Airbus A330 may be a total loss after service truck hits the nose (pics) (edited)

[cherokeeprogressive]

70. "So how was your day at work, Honey?" This reminds me of something I saw in the Navy...

I was an "airframer" working on A-6Es attached to VA-128, the west coast training squadron for A-6E pilots.

We were on a weapons detachment in El Centro, CA. It was a three week det and included training in live weapons loading as well as in-flight refueling at night.

During one refueling flight, the student pilot misjudged his closing speed with the A-6 tanker and rammed right into the back of it, knocking the port stabilator AND the rudder right off the airplane. While aircraft was spinning toward the desert floor, the B/N (right seat) in the tanker was screaming out ejection procedures but the pilot was screaming "WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT" and trying to right the plane. Wouldn't you know... he actually got it leveled off. He experimented with a few things, to see if he could actually control it (the B/N still had his hand on the ejection handle above his head).

That damn pilot flew the plane back to NAF El Centro and landed it safely with no rudder and only half a horizontal stabilizer, using differential thrust and roll commands with the stick.

When I got to the hangar the next morning and saw the plane minus the rudder and stabilator my first thought was "wow somebody really fucked up while they were towing this bird". When I heard from the pilot what had actually happened I couldn't believe my eyes.