The nerve-racking moment a fighter pilot sets down on a STOOL aboard a Navy ship after his jet's front landing gear failed

Captain William Mahoney had just taken off from the USS Bataan in his AV-8B Harrier jet when he realized he had a problem

The nose landing gear on the Cold War-era fighter failed to go down

He was forced to land vertically on a stool, which he couldn't even see

The U.S. Marine Corps has released harrowing video of a pilot skillfully performing a vertical landing on a stool aboard a ship after his fighter jet's front landing gear failed.

The incredible landing was filmed aboard the deck of the USS Bataan, a U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship.

On June 7, Captain William Mahoney was piloting an AV-8B Harrier jump jet, a Cold War-era fighter that is capable of taking off and landing vertically.

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Precise: Captain William Mahoney had to land his AV-8B Harrier jet on a stool after his front landing gear failed earlier this money

Capt Mahoney hit his mark exactly - but the nose of the jet bounced several feet off the stool on the final touchdown

Immediately after Capt Mahoney took off from the Bataan, he realized something was wrong with his landing gear.

He flew past the ship's control tower and the officer on duty confirmed: the nose landing gear had not deployed.

Fortunately, the Marine Corps keeps a piece of equipment on hand in the event of just such a malfunction. It's essentially a giant stool, capable of supporting the 22,000-pound fighter jet's nose.

But Capt Mahoney had no room for error. If he missed the stool, the $30million piece of military hardware would smash into the deck of the ship - which could potentially ignite the fuel it was carrying.



The pilot uses his plane's jump jets to lower from 300 feet to just 20 feet above the deck.



Relief: Rescue crews rushed in after Capt Mahoney successfully touched down

Meanwhile, air controllers and lights on the deck of the ship are guiding him in.



'So I'm at 20 feet stabilizing and I can't see the stool. I don't even know it's there. I didn't see it coming over the end of the ship, I remember looking for it, but I never saw the stool,' Capt Mahoney said in a U.S. Marine Corps video.



Video shows Mahoney lowering to just a few feet above the deck when the Harrier jet sudden drops. The nose hits the stool and bounces.



'At that point, I was just sort of along for the ride,' Mahoney said.















