Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
(OP)
OK, maybe not a failure per se, though in fact the fact that the pilot did not eject, as the system is supposed to, is a failure as is the apparent very lackadaisical attitude to safety, briefing and installation into the aircraft.
But at least the guy survived in one place without a heart attack, which at a reported heart rate of 140 BEFORE the incident is quite a miracle.
There are a number of reports on this but the one below is a bit more "technical". Apparently the heart rate was recorded on his watch and wasn't known to the flight crew before hand. I can't find a link to the actual report itself so if anyone can find it please add it in, although it will be in French of course....
https://theaviationist.com/2020/04/09/report-relea...
I'm sure it would be on many an engineers bucket list which is not easy to satisfy unless you have "contacts".
But at least the guy survived in one place without a heart attack, which at a reported heart rate of 140 BEFORE the incident is quite a miracle.
There are a number of reports on this but the one below is a bit more "technical". Apparently the heart rate was recorded on his watch and wasn't known to the flight crew before hand. I can't find a link to the actual report itself so if anyone can find it please add it in, although it will be in French of course....
https://theaviationist.com/2020/04/09/report-relea...
I'm sure it would be on many an engineers bucket list which is not easy to satisfy unless you have "contacts".
Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
I worked with a guy who occupied a rear seat on the recon version of Phantoms; they did not set the front seat to go with the rear, but vice versa. He mentioned that it was his opinion that the pilot could be as brave as they wanted, but if things were heading south the navigator was going to use their own best judgement.
My guess is this plane was a trainer and wired the other way, such that if an instructor in the rear seat decided it was time to leave that their opinion on leaving meant everyone needed to get out.
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6836894-FR...
Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
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RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
The fact that the pilot stayed with the jet is worthy of a "engineering failures" discussion all of its own. If the report that the selector valve body burst is correct, then I'd like to think that the Witchfinder General has taken up long-term lodgings in the Denham area. All the MB seats since about the Mk 9 rely on hot gas from pyrotechnic cartridges being piped around the place to signal every part of the sequence, so you really don't want to hear stories of pipework or valves bursting.
For those wondering why the passenger's hands were on the firing handle in the first place, the answer is simple (and has less to do with male biology than you might imagine). The urge to hold onto something is irresistible and there's very little else down there to grab. It's usually followed by a moment of abject horror as you slowly disentangle your hands and move them primly onto your knees.
A.
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-pr...
What a Phantom looks like sans rear seat.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/...
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
Just hold onto that handle and you will be fine." grin
Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
But the pilot must have been bricking it knowing that all the time he was literally sitting on a ticking bomb that could have gone off at any time and ending up with an out of control aircraft. As said in the report "he exited the airplane rapidly", once he got it on the ground.
Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
“What I told you was true ... from a certain point of view.” - Obi-Wan Kenobi, "Return of the Jedi"
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
TTFN (ta ta for now)
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RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
“What I told you was true ... from a certain point of view.” - Obi-Wan Kenobi, "Return of the Jedi"
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
With a rocket seat (anything made in about the last fifty years), the envelope extends all the way to zero forward speed, zero altitude (hence the term zero-zero seat) - provided that the aircraft is the right way up and you have zero sink rate. Granted, it doesn't leave you a lot of time to steer the parachute away from whatever it was you were trying to leave behind.
Things that come closer to guaranteeing death are sitting on a seat when it goes off inside the hangar, or sitting on it without being strapped in.
A.
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRZllj8WS2g
https://youtu.be/k4fPSfXiL0g?t=63
The first test on this is not a zero-zero seat. Ooof. The second one is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1cnvJO1TF8
This is listed as the seat in the accident aircraft: http://www.safran-martin-baker.com/smbf_web/UK/eje...
There's that convenient handle right in the middle for the grabbing.
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
You’ve never really flown until you’ve had the g-suit caressing your legs while you weigh a half ton or more.
I was talking about this with some others this afternoon and concluded that the only thing worse than ejecting would be failing to eject when you should have.
Great experience, would not care to repeat it 35+ years later.
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
Isn't there some warning out there about not ejecting over the target?
--
JHG
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
RE: Passenger accidentally ejects from fighter
They tested the strength of the canopy by firing a ( frozen) turkey at the canopy to simulate a bird strike, and did not admit until 2000 that ehy used frozen turkeys.
I recall that even in the mid '80s this was still an issue , as when Jesse jackson visited Iraq to negotiate the return of the navigator ,, the pilot had died during ejection due to amputation of both legs during ejection.
"...when logic, and proportion, have fallen, sloppy dead..." Grace Slick