This Fighter Jet Landed on a Navy Aircraft Carrier (The Pilot Wasn't American)

WarIsBoring

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Back in 2017 in the Atlantic, a fighter jet landed onto the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. The only difference this time was that the pilot was Finnish, not American.

The Finnish air force operates some 62 Hornets, 62 F/A-18Cs and seven F/A-18Ds — the latter a two-seat variant — for a total of three squadrons. That is the same type of fighter Jarvinen flew when he touched down onto the Abraham Lincoln.

On March 17, 2017 in the Atlantic, a fighter jet landed onto the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. The only difference this time was that the pilot was Finnish, not American.

Capt. Juha “Stallion” Jarvinen’s landing was the first landing on an aircraft carrier by a Finnish air force pilot in history, according to the U.S. Navy. Jarvinen was flying a U.S. Marine F/A-18C Hornet with Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 101 as part of a pilot exchange program — also a first between the U.S. Marines and the Finnish air force.

(This first appeared several months ago.)

“It was pretty intense,” Jarvinen said according to a U.S. Navy news release. “I was extremely happy because I knew I actually caught the wire when I felt the sensation of rapidly slowing down, but at the same time I was a little disappointed because I caught the second wire and not the third.”

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Nimitz-class aircraft carriers — with two exceptions, the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush — have four arresting wires, or cables. Catching the third cable is safest, but the snagging the second one isn’t bad.

The landing is interesting because Finland, like neighboring Sweden, is an officially neutral country and is not part of NATO, and the country during most of the post-war era navigated a fine line between East and West. That is still true, mostly.