September 10, 2013, will forever live in infamy for Lt. Cmdr. Nick Toth, NOAA pilot, and for everyone else involved in the first recorded “fish strike,” in the history of NOAA at MacDill that occurred that morning.
At roughly 10:50 a.m., Toth and the rest of the aircrew were cleared for takeoff and started their roll in their Gulfstream GIV.
“We were nearing the point in the takeoff where we needed to rotate, or raise the nose of the airplane off the ground, when an Osprey with something in its claws flew in front of our aircraft,” explained Toth. “We saw that the Osprey did not gain enough altitude, and that it passed underneath the centerline of the aircraft.”
