It probably isn't as close to the ship as it appears fro that angle.

It's a real pic, not an edit. The info in the caption on your pic is bogus though. Here's the actual story behind it: http://www.aerofiles.com/f14flyby.html I like this video of a low level flyby of a carrier group: http://images.military.com/Shock/0,,SA_050415_FlyBy,00.html

I like that Admiral cool with hands behind his back while the nut flies by with this huge thing. Priceless.

Well that Admiral, then CNO, happens to be a former naval aviator himself. Haven't looked at what's posted, but i assume it's the Cmdr Snodgrass flyby.

thanks for that. people don't realize how good (or crazy) these guys are. I had a fiberglass compass ring cover pulled from my hands when I was buzzed by 2 f18s at some craazy speed. That fly by nearly shattered the windows on the bridge and as it was knocked the starboard bridge door off its rails. The nav radar plotted them at just over 600 knots, but that was 15 or 20 seconds after they had passed.

Similar experience many moons ago. Our CO p!ssed of a few pilots on the intrepid while we were with her on a northern euro trip. I swear to this day (they call it a no sh!tter) I was going up the starboard bridgewing ladder to the sig bridge. I heard a funny noise. Stood up and the next thing I see is an A-4's canopy just a few feet above my head. He had put his wingtip between the bridge and the ASROC launcher (20ft?). He waved bye bye to the bridge crew at the time as he went by at high speed (atleast 200Kts.) To be honest with you, after it was over, my brain was going "did that really happen?" I still do wonder about that incident. Whew!

you're lucky you didn't fall off EW3! Those little A4's were something else when it came to maneuver, eh?

You were on the Intrepid? This: http://navysite.de/cv/cv11_5.jpg