Very complete coverage of everything Ticonderoga. But Mr. Winchester missed a critical detail. I would have interview other pilots, as opposed to ship’s crew, to find out what Doug was looking at or for in the A-4 cockpit. I suggest he was baffled that the brake light was not coming on. I don’t think he was distracted, but instead there was something wrong with his instrumentation. The sailors who moved the plane are not going to know the A-4 like another pilot would.
A second point. The pilot did not eject. Why not? A guy I used to work with was a Vietnam Veteran stationed on a carrier (sadly, I don’t know which one). He told me about an A-4 pilot, who after a landing, went over the side with the plane. My co-worker said that they had managed to hook the plane with a cable and he would have been all right. But the pilot triggered the ejection mechanism which due to the angle of the plane, had him slamming into the side of the carrier. That killed him. Doug may have been aware of this hazard and elected not to eject.