Carnival Pride Got Buzzed By A Jet

[chengkp75]

I agree with Lou that the plane was more than 50 feet from the ship. I've never heard of a cruise ship being buzzed before, but I used to work on a RO/RO ship that went to Bremerhaven, and in the North Sea, the German Air Force would routinely make "bombing" runs on merchant ships. They are trained to fly nap of the earth, and were experiencing a lot of accidents when practicing over land with running into high tension wires. So, the Air Force decided to train where there are no wires; out to sea. The plane would come at the ship from the side, and just before passing over, they would roll inverted and gain about 10 feet. They were less than 50 feet above the ship. You got used to it.

 

Flying alongside the ship is the least dangerous thing he could do. He is away from the turbulence of the ship's exhaust, and if he malfunctions, he can just nose away and ditch. Flying over the ship at low altitude would have gotten him canned.

[Artemus]

The 50 feet distance is what my wife and some other passengers estimated. And yes 9/11 was going through my mind.

[Zelda Schwartz]

Happened to us on the Magic last May. We were just south of Key West returning to Galveston and out by the aft pool. It was awesome to see!

[scooterpopsnana]

This happens somewhat regularly actually. I worked at the NAS down in Key West for a while and was told several accounts of pilots putting on a show for the visiting cruise ship passengers, including flying low and right over the ship. Sounds kinda awesome if you ask me.

 

Yes, we have seen it several times as well.

[retiredgram]

I was on the Pride the week before, and we didn't have anything this exciting happen. :(

 

Part of me thinks this would have been really cool to see, but in this day and age, it seems really stupid. Not only could there have been a mistake leading to catastrophe, but with peoples' 9-11 fears, some passengers could have been frightened to the point of having heart attacks :eek: It just doesn't seem to be a smart thing to have done.

 

It is not a 9/11 fear that has me concerned about the plane hitting the ship. Not too long ago, like less than 6 weeks, an Air Force jet from Massachusetts crashed into the woods in Virginia. This pilot was extremely experienced, yet his plane crashed and sadly, he lost his life. He was flying the jet to LA to have some upgrades done. This kind of thing can happen in an instance without warning. To me, the Naval Air Base in NC is putting thousands of cruise passengers in harms way. I do not mean to sound like a stick in the mud, but believe me, accidents happen in an instance.

Agree with these posts. Too many things could go wrong.

[scooterpopsnana]

It is not a 9/11 fear that has me concerned about the plane hitting the ship. Not too long ago, like less than 6 weeks, an Air Force jet from Massachusetts crashed into the woods in Virginia. This pilot was extremely experienced, yet his plane crashed and sadly, he lost his life. He was flying the jet to LA to have some upgrades done. This kind of thing can happen in an instance without warning. To me, the Naval Air Base in NC is putting thousands of cruise passengers in harms way. I do not mean to sound like a stick in the mud, but believe me, accidents happen in an instance.

 

It is not just the pilots based in NC that are doing this. We have never left from a port north of Charleston, yet we have seen it happen several times.

[andy.capitan]

If you're lucky you'll cruise by an aircraft carrier, too.

 

 

 

[Hornet441]

it could have been a training mission

 

Ya think?

[grumpyjr88]

I grew up on Naval air bases so I would have loved this! Sorry it scared you. Sounds like you missed a great show. :)

[My6Dogs]

I've had F-18s sneak up on me while I was driving my work truck. One time, an F-18 came up behind me and when it got close enough the pilot pulled back hard on the stick and hit the after burners. I about wet myself when the sound finally caught up with it. They can be silent as death until they're right on top of you.

 

Fighter pilots are show-offs. And don't even get me started on A-10 pilots!

 

I love the sound of an A-10! I've been out of The Air Force since 1987... sure do miss the sounds...

 

Mike

Edited October 14, 2014 by My6Dogs

[Surfwench]

I was on the Carnival Pride last week. On Monday or Tuesday, My wife and I were in our cabin late morning/early afternoon and all of sudden there was the sound of an airplane approaching the ship and it was moving fast and got louder and louder. It sounded like it was getting ready to hit the ship and I dove onto the floor of our cabin. It flew away from the ship and then about a minute later it returned but not quite as close, but still close. It turned out to be a U.S. fighter jet playing with the ship. My wife saw it but I never did because I was on the floor. She and several other passengers said it was about 50 feet away from and ship and just above the water, about even with our deck 7. Some people I talked to who were on lido also thought a plane was going to hit the ship. It scared the crap of me.

 

LOL. I grew up in the high desert of California where Chuck Yeager and his team of fly boys did amazing things every day over the California desert. A lot of the pilots were neighbors of ours and they LOVED buzzing their friends on the golf course. Sonic booms.... 2,3,4... of them every day. Next time take a peek. :-)

[kona_wahine]

This happened to us on the Dream heading to western Carribean, just off Cuba. DH and I happened to be out for a walk on deck 5 when we could finally make out the aircraft carrier in the distance. We saw the fighter jet coming towards us and boy was he low and close! Not 50 feet, sorry that's not realistic. Not to mention fast and loud. It was pretty darn exciting. Still don't know whose it was. We watched them off in the distance buzzing around but only that one buzzed us.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

It happened to us in the middle of the Gulf. There was a carrier about 10 miles off and the planes and helicopters were flying around.

 

But if you REALLY want to get "buzzed" by a plane, go into Boston on a cruise ship... :)

 

They do fly fairly low around the Boston cruiseport but you're even closer to the planes on approach to runway 9 at key west. If you're at the navy pier, they fly very low directly overhead. I've seen planes as large as 737 buzz our ship there. Pretty cool. Just last week we actually were obstructing the final approach glidepath as we were leaving Aruba on the Breeze. As the ships sail in and out they pass right by the runway threshold. As we left at about 4:15 in the afternoon, the daily KLM A330 from Amsterdam was lining up for final and he had to abort the approach, circle back once or twice and wait for us to get out of the way so he could come in and land. Quite a few people noticed and although there wasn't any danger to us or the plane as I'm sure they saw us, my point is that maybe perception might exaggerate experiences. One has to remember the fighter jet engines are way louder than commercial jet engines and the plane may have sounded closer than it actually was. Especially if you were in an enclosed space like a lido or a balcony where the sound can echo. I'm not saying that's what happened but based on my experiences of seeing fighters do maneuvers over my neighborhood numerous times, that was my experience. It sure must have been cool to see a fighter jet that close either way though as that's not an everyday thing for most people.

[JMAE]

I saw the two flybys. The A/C was about 400 to 500 yards off the starboard side of the ship at altitude above the ship. The A/C did not break the sound barrier, not even close as the sound was traveling with the A/C. The pilot was not even using the afterburners. If he was within 50 feet of the ship, the ship would have sustained some damage from the air displacement of the A/C. I loved the flyby it brings back many good USAF memories. We had an airshow along with a cruise.

[golfb4cruzing]

Negative Ghost Rider, the pattern is full!!

[dlanesman]

Wow, that sounds like it would have been awesome to see and hear!!

 

Sounds like the boy from the NAS in Norfolk were having some fun.

 

I love watching them flying fast and on the floor. That's our boys all right. I live in Virginia Beach and work near NAS.

[JustCruiseMe]

Ha you should live where I live and you can consistently drive in your car and have an Apache, Chinook, Kiowa warriors and a myriad of aircraft flying map of the earth over your car or aircraft in formation buzz your house. A few years ago I thought we were being invaded there were so many going over my house. But I do understand it would be scary on a ship.

[A2Mich]

Agree with these posts. Too many things could go wrong.

 

 

You still likely have a higher chance of being killed in a car accident on the way to the cruise terminal. Way too many paranoid people these days........

[A2Mich]

If you're lucky you'll cruise by an aircraft carrier, too.

 

 

 

 

NIce pics of the USS Ronald Reagan. Yes, I did have to check and see which carrier CVN 76 was, though....

[andy.capitan]

NIce pics of the USS Ronald Reagan. Yes, I did have to check and see which carrier CVN 76 was, though....

 

Thank you and yes. Amazing how some people thought it was Chinese. :eek:

 

We had just seen it a few days earlier in San Diego.

 

[gunner13]

I would like reiterate that the jet did not fly over the ship, it flew right beside it, 50 feet away, which is really close. It flew by on the starboard side where my balcony cabin was. And it was without warning and I can't even tell you how loud it was. I was terrified.

 

Ah, the sound of freedom! The U.S. Jets are flown by the best trained pilots on the planet. It's actually excellent training for them. While we all hope & pray it isn't necessary they may be called on someday soon to deliver ordnance on time and on target to protect American lives.

 

God Bless every one of our brave men and women who protect all of our rights (including our right to cruise) 24/7 365.

 

I can tell you that in another life I was flying anti-submarine patrols in the Atlantic. While there weren't near the number of cruise ships afloat then, you'd be nuts if you don't think we knew the location of every passenger ship out there! We much preferred to be rescued by a passenger ship as a military vessel or a freight hauler if the unthinkable happened!

[dltvermont]

Im with the others, I would LOVE this to happen on our cruise. I cant get enough watching fighter aircraft. Sailing by a carrier would be a huge bonus!!

[PAPERBKWRITER]

Since so many people are glued to their camera or cell phone these days where's the pictures? Believe it happened but on the second pass somebody should have got one.

[nokidz]

this would have be awesome to experience!!

[coasterjan]

Must be something wrong with me, because it makes no sense to me to huddle on the floor cowering if a plane flies close by. It's not like being on the floor is going to save my life if it hits the ship, and I want to *see* what's coming for me.

 

I'm fascinated by planes. Yep, I'd be the nutcase running out on the balcony in hopes of catching a glimpse of it.

 

Janis