Many years ago on one of the little flat tops we had a young helicopter mechanic who thought he would video a Harrier take off serial. Being on the Seaking squadron he knew about downwash, but obviously thought he knew about jetwash too. He chose to stand outboard of the Seaking folded and parked in the “fly” spot next to the island behind the front aircraft lift, and even more bizarrely, no-one stopped him.
Cut to the mess deck later that evening.
“Does anyone want to see my video?”
We were all bored and videos were still relatively novel so we mumbled for him to put it on.
A shakey scene of a Harrier spooling up at the end of the runway, appeared on the television; “spotter!” we all chorused. Then the harrier received the launch signal from the FDO, the pilot released his brakes, and it roared up the deck as matey boy panned keeping it in shot.
As the harrier leapt off the ski ramp the television was suddenly filled with, sky, deck, sky, deck several times, finally ending with him clambering to his feet having been rolled down the deck. Memory is fading but I’m sure I remember an angry looking FDO advancing on him before the screen went blank.