John Carrier wrote:
Talked to someone knowledgeable about the mishap ... knew the pilot and is
an F-18 LSO.

His opinion ... a sharp LSO "right for lineup" was uneccessary and made the
LSO culpable as well. I still disagree, I think the pilot should have had
sufficient awareness of his location (essentially in the wires) to make a
less dramatic line up correction. OTOH, I don't think the LSO should have
made the call in the first place.

As an E-2 guy, I always used a judicious hunk of rudder on those IC-AR
right for lineups along with the wing dip. I guess that's not possible
in the Hornet, with HAL actually flying the plane?

It was a hot discussion topic at LSO school. OBTW, the mishap aviator is
evidently a solid top-10 player for landings (obviously not that day). And
his career didn't end.

I've stood and watched a top ten guy catch a taxi one after a couple of
seconds of flight with the plane intermittently illuminated by those
pesky flashing red lights. Everybody has their day.

Nice thing about that pass was that it was easy to grade.