There were several incidents such as this during the A-6's long career, but I cannot find any that meet the criteria of (a) pilot survived, B/N didn't, and (b) late during the A-6's service life.

Morgan & Morgan's excellent book, INTRUDER: THE OPERATIONAL HISTORY OF GRUMMAN'S A-6, has an appendix of all operational A-6 losses. (There's a separate appendix for combat losses.) In that appendix there is only one instance of a carrier launch loss where the pilot survived and the B/N was lost:

BuNo 151825 / KA-6D, VA-75, 10/11/74, Mediterranean, off CV-60. Flaps/slats retracted on launch.

On the other hand there are several carrier launch losses where the fatality accrued to the left side of the cockpit. Within this group, only one occurred late in the Intruder's operational career:

BuNo 155708 / A-6E, VA-176, 01/19/91, Mediterranean, off CV-59. (No cause listed.)

With some more information, I can likely narrow things down or identify the actual event. With that, some other intrepid soul can fathom the depths of the Naval Safety Center records for the cause.

--
Mike Kanze

"The real accomplishment of 'The Da Vinci Code' is that Dan Brown has proven that the theory of conspiracy theories is totally elastic, it has no limits."

- Daniel Henninger, WALL STREET JOURNAL - 5/19/06

"spamno" wrote in message news:6o_dg.177$xO5.28@trnddc03...

"TV" wrote in message
...
They had some footage of some cat launches gone wrong. In one an A-6
took
off the waist catapult of a carrier and started losing altitude almost
immediately. Then something really big fell off the plane, it started
to
roll, and the pilots ejected at very low altitude.
Probably engine failure on the stroke. Possibly wrong weight setting on
the cat. The older catapults would use a given steam pressure to
achieve
a particular end-speed for a particular gross weight. These would
malfunction on rare occasions. The newer cats use a rotary valve that
allows full pressure (600psi IIRC) for a particular duration and are
just
about fool proof (unless its set for the wrong weight).
A fully-loaded A-6 didn't have very good single-engine fly away
capability. The "something" was probably all the underwing stores.
Pilot
pushed the emergency jettison and the pylons were cleaned off.

If it's the event I'm thinking of, I heard an interview from the pilot. I
don't remember the cause of the problem, but it was either insufficient
cat
stroke, or more likely, an engine problem (because I don't remember him
blaming the cat/crew). After the shot, the pilot noticed that they
weren't
going anywhere (not a good thing), and tried to hack it. Folks on deck
were
screaming to eject. The drop tanks were punched off late, then the B/N
ejected, then the pilot ejected. The pilot hit the water at almost a 90
degree angle but made it. The B/N didn't. The pilot went on to
transition
to the F-14 after that cruise (one of the A-6s last).

If it was one of the A-6s last cruises that would put it in the mid nineties
time frame. Any idea what boat?