The Maggie Incident. It has been laid at my door that I tried to sink the P.M. that day but it was one T*** D****** who released the Atlantic 22 near the P.M.'s boat. The huge orange painted metal cradle the RIB sat in nearly struck the side of her vessel after it separated from RIB.
I did think one day that I was the instigator of my own demise when we dropped the Muirhill earth mover on a HSP platform. On my "green on" the loadie said "extractor released" then nothing. An eternity later the chutes deployed and the 40,000 lb bulldozer sat obstinately where it was. The Herc pitched up and the ASI unwound from it's dangerously slow airspeed to just above brisk taxying speed. The pilot had the yoke forward against the instrument panel and the co-pilot had advanced the throttles to the same position. Then like suddenly being unconstipated the load went from nought to 125kts out the back in a cloud of detritus. The nose pitched down, I left the floor and the 4 Allisons were determined to put us in a small hole in Salisbury plain. We were also unconstipated and swore that if they wanted this thing in Europe they should send it by Fred Olsen.