IT’s a $30 million combat jet with a serious problem: The wheels won’t go down. Watch how this pilot uses a $30 stool to save it.
It was supposed to be just a normal day’s flying for US Marine Corps Captain William Mahoney.
He was aboard his AV8B Harrier, taking off from the assault ship USS Bataan earlier this month, when something went thud.
“As I was climbing away from the deck I put my gear up and realised I had a malfunction,” he says in a US defence department video. He immediately contacted the “help desk” aboard his ship.
“I flew by the ship, I did an approach … so he could see my landing gear and give me an idea of what was going on.”
It was immediately apparent that the nose landing gear was jammed in the upright position.
“How do I get the jet back on the deck safely?” he asks.
“Eventually Major Murphy gets back to me … the ship had this amazing invention.”
Essentially, it was a stool.
Operating blind (the pilot cannot see directly down), Captain Mahoney followed the guidance of electronic systems and observers on the ship’s control tower.
“I can’t see the stool. I didn’t even know it was there,” he says.
“Oh boy … this is going to get interesting”.
It was a three-point landing, with a bit of bounce.
But the $30 million aircraft was saved.
After an inspection, the plane was back in action, the pilot back in the air — and the stool safely stashed back in its cupboard.
Click this link to view video: 
Harrier jump-jet makes emergency landing on ... a stool. | News.com.au
