F 18 High Speed Buzz of Enchantment of the Seas

[orville99]

Three comments:

On April 16 on Wonder waiting to depart PC as the Cocoa Beach air show was in progress we had At least a dozen Thunderbird flyovers of the ship - including a "missing man" formation and several lone jet vs the others in the squadron intercept maneuvers. Unfortunately for the 6,700+ passengers on board, neither the captain nor the cruise director made any announcements about what was happening, so the sight (and sound) of an F16? flying by with its portside wing pointing straight down towards the ground while visually level with the pool deck probably caused a few underwear changes.😱😇 

 

Growing up in upstate NY close enough to Rome AFB to witness countless B-52 simulated low level bombing runs over the Adirondack foothills in the Watertown/Tupper Lake area.

 

Lake Ontario was always a favorite practice location for fighter jets to do high speed maneuvers, so we got very used to sonic booms on sunny days.

[davekathy]

10 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Growing up in upstate NY close enough to Rome AFB

I also grew up close to Griffiss AFB. 

[shipgeeks]

11 hours ago, death_star said:

 

 

Doesn't tipping a wing on a fly by mean something?

It's a salute.

[orville99]

34 minutes ago, davekathy said:

I also grew up close to Griffiss AFB. 

One of the problems with old age is that while I can still remember the B-52's lumbering over the foothills around Rome, the name of the SAC base completely escaped me.😇

[Ret MP]

I used to love watching and participating in field maneuvers in Grafenwhor and Baumholder Germany when the A-10s would do their things.  I loved the fighters/bombers too but they were too fast to really enjoy for extended periods of time.  The A-10s seemed to work out for up to an hour or so and come back several times a day.  I assume they left to refuel and reload.  During large NATO exercises, aircraft low-level maneuvers over the NATO countryside was a normal activity.

 

While I was at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), NM, it was amazing what we were involved with and participated in.  WSMR was more than just a missile range.  

 

If the entire Navy buzzed a cruise ship that I was on, I'd be one of the first out there giving them the thumbs up.  Love it!

[cruisegirl1976]

On 4/28/2023 at 11:27 AM, Engineroom Snipe said:

At about 11:15 am on April 27, 2023, (yesterday). I was sitting on deck five outside of the midship  elevator bank on the port side. I witnessed what appeared to be an F 18 do a high speed fly-by cutting from our starboard bow and sharply following our port side with the one wingtip lower than the top of the deck railing. I had a complete view of the top of the jet.  It might have been about 200 feet away at most. In all of my years in the Navy, I have never seen a plane almost touching the water on its side at about 390 knots.

 

It was a Top Gun moment where I could distinctly make out the details of the pilot's helmet.

 

The same jet made another high speed pass from our stern passing along the starboard side before doing a vertical afterburner ascent disappearing into the clouds in about five or six seconds.

 

I guess we looked threatening but after closer review, found not dangerous.

 

I do think it was a bit unsafe. I would hate to think what would have happened if a wingtip touched the water or God forbid, have struck the ship.

 

The Navy is not proud of it for I cannot find any reports about it with any search engine.

 

"Maybe it was the Air Force.........."  😉

 

🫢

Same thing happened to us back in 2005, we were sailing on the Norwegian Dawn, and think we were off the coast of virginia. It was pretty neat.

[lovesthebeach2]

On 4/29/2023 at 11:51 AM, chengkp75 said:

Moderately common for planes to make practice runs on ships. Seen it many times over 46 years. Pilot not likely to get into trouble. 

Last September on Voyager one of our table mates was a pilot and flew jets during his career, either Navy or Air Force I don’t remember, and he told us some stories of the crazy things they did and didn’t get in trouble.  His stories were so cool!

[lovesthebeach2]

58 minutes ago, Ret MP said:

I used to love watching and participating in field maneuvers in Grafenwhor and Baumholder Germany when the A-10s would do their things.  I loved the fighters/bombers too but they were too fast to really enjoy for extended periods of time.  The A-10s seemed to work out for up to an hour or so and come back several times a day.  I assume they left to refuel and reload.  During large NATO exercises, aircraft low-level maneuvers over the NATO countryside was a normal activity.

 

While I was at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), NM, it was amazing what we were involved with and participated in.  WSMR was more than just a missile range.  

 

If the entire Navy buzzed a cruise ship that I was on, I'd be one of the first out there giving them the thumbs up.  Love it!

Because we lived near the Navy owned airport on eastern Long Island where a Grumman did all their testing of all the jets they built, we got to see so many types of military aircraft. The B-52 sounded like a huge hive of bees humming along.  The Grumman A-6 was so incredibly loud and fast we had to stop talking because otherwise we would have to yell. Sometimes things on the wall would shake from the vibrations!

[4hunters]

On 4/29/2023 at 9:16 AM, grandgeezer said:

We live near Luke AFB, in AZ. And also see and hear jets almost every day. The newer F-22s can be quite loud, when they fly a little lower, but as yo said, the sounds of freedom.

I don’t know what the big deal about flying over cruise ships, they do all kinds of flyovers over special events, such as the Super Bowl and I haven’t heard of any complaints.

Not trying to be "that guy", but they don't fly F-22s at Luke.  We have only F-35s and F-16s.  Just thought you might like to know. 👍

[Cruise5life]

All the cameras on board.  And no videos.     Fail.   

[chengkp75]

35 minutes ago, Cruise5life said:

All the cameras on board.  And no videos.     Fail.   

Well, let's see.  The OP reported that the plane was doing 390 knots (not sure how that was determined), which equals 650 feet/second.  Enchantment is just under 1000 feet long, so the entire fly by would have lasted about 2 seconds.

[Cruise5life]

32 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Well, let's see.  The OP reported that the plane was doing 390 knots (not sure how that was determined), which equals 650 feet/second.  Enchantment is just under 1000 feet long, so the entire fly by would have lasted about 2 seconds.

I guess you didn’t read the entire post.   They also made another pass.  
so after the first pass. I’m sure someone heard it.  
land with everyone taking pics and videos everywhere.  Some gotta have one.   Lol. 

[orville99]

3 hours ago, Ret MP said:

The A-10s seemed to work out for up to an hour or so and come back several times a day.  I assume they left to refuel and reload. 

Have always loved the Warthog, but my favorite has always been the AV8B Harrier jump jet. Back when I had DOD as a client I was at Mac Air HQ in St. Louis doing a presentation about Tempesting Capabilities for some of our hardware when an AV8 popped up just outside the conference room windows, hovered for a bit, did a slow 360 degree spin and then tilt its nose up and was gone in a heartbeat.

Edited May 1, 2023 by orville99

[Rogueperson]

Not a cruise ship story, but around 2005 or 2006 was working downtown, DC near the White House.  Occasionally, we would get notices that there could be overflights of military aircraft due to exercises out of Andrews.  There was one such notice and when walking from the Metro to my office, I heard this really loud roar and I looked up to see a B-2 at around 2000 feet just flying by.  That sucker is HUGE.

[orville99]

2 hours ago, Cruise5life said:

All the cameras on board.  And no videos.     Fail.   

From the Cocoa Beach air show on 4/16:

 

[Cruise5life]

6 minutes ago, orville99 said:

From the Cocoa Beach air show on 4/16:

 

What does this have to do with buzzing a cruise ship? And a video from the deck of the said cruise ship.   
 

i live near Nellis AFB.   And we see these daily.   That’s Nellie air strip in the background 

Edited May 1, 2023 by Cruise5life

[orville99]

49 minutes ago, Cruise5life said:

What does this have to do with buzzing a cruise ship? And a video from the deck of the said cruise ship.   
 

i live near Nellis AFB.   And we see these daily.   That’s Nellie air strip in the background 

 

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A bit snarky don't you think considering the video was taken from our balcony on Deck 8 of the Wonder of the seas as the jets buzzed the port.🙄

[Cruise5life]

29 minutes ago, orville99 said:

A bit snarky don't you think considering the video was taken from our balcony on Deck 8 of the Wonder of the seas as the jets buzzed the port.🙄

Snarky or not.    It Still has nothing to do about the post.   
and if you call that buzzing the port Lolol. The ports in coco.  Of course there gonna be there for an air show.    

[Ret MP]

2 hours ago, orville99 said:

Have always loved the Warthog, but my favorite has always been the AV8B Harrier jump jet. Back when I had DOD as a client I was at Mac Air HQ in St. Louis doing a presentation about Tempesting Capabilities for some of our hardware when an AV8 popped up just outside the conference room windows, hovered for a bit, did a slow 360 degree spin and then tilt its nose up and was gone in a heartbeat.

I bet that was exciting for you. 

 

But, there is nothing like the A-10 firing their Mini Gun just over your head.  Sitting in a foxhole, and before you hear the sound, the damn thing has already gone by (that has little to do with speed, but how quiet the thing is.  But, yes, speed has a little to do with it).  I felt bad for the dope heads, they could never get the rush we would get with some of the experiences I/we experienced.  

 

I went to China Lake once to pick up some MLRS for QC/testing at WSMR, and saw a few Harriers doing their thing.  They are very kewl.  

[Engineroom Snipe]

2 hours ago, Cruise5life said:

I guess you didn’t read the entire post.   They also made another pass.  
so after the first pass. I’m sure someone heard it.  
land with everyone taking pics and videos everywhere.  Some gotta have one.   Lol. 

 

I estimated the speed at 390 knots because the plane was on a minimum of a 75 degree left roll as it flew by. I could not see the pylon load (fuel tanks, electronic pods, weapons because I could not see the undercarriage of the fuselage. 

 

I had exactly that, about two seconds to see a jet so close I could make out the details of the canopy. It was completely out of sight and sound by the time I could get out of the chair and to the gunwale (five to six seconds).

 

I did not expect to see it again on another fly-by. I do not even think anyone even knew what happened on the first fly-by.

 

Its second approach was on the opposite side, if anything, people went to the side of the ship where it originally appeared.

 

Not everyone has their phone ready to go in standby mode on video. Even then, it takes one second to hit the button and depending on the resolution and speed of the video, it would just be a blur.

 

You could have told me that this plane was coming and I am not sure if I would have gotten a clear, focused, and framed video of a two to three second fly-by at about 350 foot distance.

 

Almost sounds like you are calling me out on making this up.

 

Everyone onboard the ship heard the Captain's announcement.

[Cruise5life]

6 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

 

I estimated the speed at 390 knots because the plane was on a minimum of a 75 degree left roll as it flew by. I could not see the pylon load (fuel tanks, electronic pods, weapons because I could not see the undercarriage of the fuselage. 

 

I had exactly that, about two seconds to see a jet so close I could make out the details of the canopy. It was completely out of sight and sound by the time I could get out of the chair and to the gunwale (five to six seconds).

 

I did not expect to see it again on another fly-by. I do not even think anyone even knew what happened on the first fly-by.

 

Its second approach was on the opposite side, if anything, people went to the side of the ship where it originally appeared.

 

Not everyone has their phone ready to go in standby mode on video. Even then, it takes one second to hit the button and depending on the resolution and speed of the video, it would just be a blur.

 

You could have told me that this plane was coming and I am not sure if I would have gotten a clear, focused, and framed video of a two to three second fly-by at about 350 foot distance.

 

Almost sounds like you are calling me out on making this up.

 

Everyone onboard the ship heard the Captain's announcement.

Not calling you out at all.      

In the days of social media and everyone having a camera with them or blogging 24/7.
No not everyone. But 99% do.  

I’m surprised there’s no actual pics videos of this.    
would be awesome to see.  
what did the captain announce 

Edited May 1, 2023 by Cruise5life

[Engineroom Snipe]

1 hour ago, orville99 said:

From the Cocoa Beach air show on 4/16:

 

 Unlike this video, the jet was so close, it would have not fit into the frame.

[Ret MP]

5 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

 Unlike this video, the jet was so close, it would have not fit into the frame.

I'd like to see that video.  BUT, my security software won't let me open it without ignoring the security warning and it also requires me to save it to my file explorer.  I won't do that.

[orville99]

37 minutes ago, Cruise5life said:

Snarky or not.    It Still has nothing to do about the post.   
and if you call that buzzing the port Lolol. The ports in coco.  Of course there gonna be there for an air show.    

Duhh...I posted the video in response to a poster who said no one had any videos of jets bussing a ship in port, We actually have about a dozen videos of the jets. I posted that one because it was one of the shortest ones that we took. 

 

14 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

 Unlike this video, the jet was so close, it would have not fit into the frame.

We have ones that show similar shots of the jets, but they all have about a minute of distant sound from the squadron before the jets actually fly by. 

[orville99]

4 hours ago, Cruise5life said:

I live near Nellis AFB.   And we see these daily.   That’s Nellie air strip in the background

I have been to Nellis numerous times in my former life dealing with DOD, and the activity there has always been a sight to see. Not sure I’d want to live around the base with all that going on every day however.