Pensioner ejected from fighter jet
Discussion
king told you I didn't want do it. t
Of all the issues they identified the one I was surprised they didn't consider was disabling the ejection seat handle for the untrained observer (or training the observer on its use).
Seems bizarre to me that a joy rider has access to an armed ejection seat. Just hope they don't fly those civvies around with live armaments too. "Wonder what this button does..."
Seems bizarre to me that a joy rider has access to an armed ejection seat. Just hope they don't fly those civvies around with live armaments too. "Wonder what this button does..."
aeropilot said:
Simpo Two said:
It could be a script for Only Fools and Horses.
Or 'Carry On Fighter Pilot'.....The closest parallel I can think of is when a Jet Provost rolled and the passenger fell out. He had the remarkable presence of mind to pull his ripcord - but the pilot had to continue and land thinking he was dead. Over Essex about 20 years ago IIRC.
Edited 'cos they're tandem so no 'back' involved.
Edited by Simpo Two on Friday 10th April 13:35
MikeStroud said:
Of all the issues they identified the one I was surprised they didn't consider was disabling the ejection seat handle for the untrained observer (or training the observer on its use).
Seems bizarre to me that a joy rider has access to an armed ejection seat. Just hope they don't fly those civvies around with live armaments too. "Wonder what this button does..."
Surely the issue is having an untrained person in a high performance jet aircraft! It's simple, if you are not properly trained to use the equipment put in place to save your life in emergency, then you'd shouldn't be sat there in the first place......Seems bizarre to me that a joy rider has access to an armed ejection seat. Just hope they don't fly those civvies around with live armaments too. "Wonder what this button does..."
Disabling an ejector seat occupied by a person whilst in flight would go against every single intuitive and sensible fundamental concept of that seat..
Simpo Two said:
The closest parallel I can think of is when a Jet Provost rolled and the passenger fell out. He had the remarkable presence of mind to pull his ripcord - but the pilot had to continue and land thinking he was dead. Over Essex about 20 years ago IIRC.
The JP incident involved two brothers, as I recall. There was also a fatal incident where the unsecured rear ejection seat in a Tornado fell out of the aircraft.
Very similar to the French occurrence was the Tomcat Cabriolet incident. Non-flight crew familiarisation flight, rear-seater incorrectly secured, bit of negative G, instinctively grabbed the conveniently positioned and cheerfully painted handle and promptly departed.
Max_Torque said:
MikeStroud said:
Of all the issues they identified the one I was surprised they didn't consider was disabling the ejection seat handle for the untrained observer (or training the observer on its use).
Seems bizarre to me that a joy rider has access to an armed ejection seat. Just hope they don't fly those civvies around with live armaments too. "Wonder what this button does..."
Surely the issue is having an untrained person in a high performance jet aircraft! It's simple, if you are not properly trained to use the equipment put in place to save your life in emergency, then you'd shouldn't be sat there in the first place......Seems bizarre to me that a joy rider has access to an armed ejection seat. Just hope they don't fly those civvies around with live armaments too. "Wonder what this button does..."
Disabling an ejector seat occupied by a person whilst in flight would go against every single intuitive and sensible fundamental concept of that seat..
There are some ex-military aircraft types being operated with deactivated ejection seats, but none that I'm aware of where there are a mixture of active and deactivated seats. I heard yesterday that a couple of mates have just bought an ex-Roulettes PC-9 - the seats in those have had the pyrotechnics removed, not sure if they are intending to reactivate them.
Simpo Two said:
aeropilot said:
Simpo Two said:
It could be a script for Only Fools and Horses.
Or 'Carry On Fighter Pilot'.....The closest parallel I can think of is when a Jet Provost rolled and the passenger fell out. He had the remarkable presence of mind to pull his ripcord - but the pilot had to continue and land thinking he was dead. Over Essex about 20 years ago IIRC.
Edited 'cos they're tandem so no 'back' involved.
Edited by Simpo Two on Friday 10th April 13:35
Taylor James said:
Can you imagine how the pilot must have been feeling assuming he knew he should have been ejected and that it might go at any time? Christ!
Reminds me of the accident at Duxford, where the aircraft ended up on the carriageway, with the pilot( I think’) sat on a live seat. It wasn’t a 0/0 rated seat either. The other occupant had already fatally ejected.Edited by normalbloke on Friday 10th April 16:53
That is an almost unbelievable comedy of errors. Not the fact the Old Guy didn't want to go, but everything else too like safety equipment not fitted correctly, lack of briefs etc just what a colossal cluster!
The closest I saw to something similar was when the Navy came to Wittering in '97-ish and, as was usual, a selected few from the station were allowed back seaters in the Navy T4 Harrier Trainer. I can't remember exactly which section the young female officer who was in the back seat worked at but the T4 did one circuit and landed back, taxied in and, with no Navy groundcrew nearby (as it was supposed to be a 1hr+ flight) the "Line Walker" NCO marshalled the aircraft to a parking space. After putting the front ladder against the T4 for the Pilot to get out he started to put the rear ladder against the T4 when the pilot, who after unstrapping and opening the canopy could now see into the rear cockpit started yelling "get back" etc.
The young lass had had some kind of panic attack on take-off, started screaming, pee'd herself, then completely froze out (couldn't speak or move) which meant she hadn't put her seat pan firing handle pin in after landing but still had a death grip on the handle. It took about 30 mins after landing for her to be taken away by the medics after the firemen carried her out of the seat as lots of flightline folks gathered about 100m away to watch (myself included, not knowing what was going on until after).
About a month later I had my only Harrier T10 back-seater and the pilot over-G'd about 10 mins into the flight (only 4.5g limit) so we had to come back early which sent the Gossip factory off with "there's been another one" even before I'd landed, cheeky gits
The closest I saw to something similar was when the Navy came to Wittering in '97-ish and, as was usual, a selected few from the station were allowed back seaters in the Navy T4 Harrier Trainer. I can't remember exactly which section the young female officer who was in the back seat worked at but the T4 did one circuit and landed back, taxied in and, with no Navy groundcrew nearby (as it was supposed to be a 1hr+ flight) the "Line Walker" NCO marshalled the aircraft to a parking space. After putting the front ladder against the T4 for the Pilot to get out he started to put the rear ladder against the T4 when the pilot, who after unstrapping and opening the canopy could now see into the rear cockpit started yelling "get back" etc.
The young lass had had some kind of panic attack on take-off, started screaming, pee'd herself, then completely froze out (couldn't speak or move) which meant she hadn't put her seat pan firing handle pin in after landing but still had a death grip on the handle. It took about 30 mins after landing for her to be taken away by the medics after the firemen carried her out of the seat as lots of flightline folks gathered about 100m away to watch (myself included, not knowing what was going on until after).
About a month later I had my only Harrier T10 back-seater and the pilot over-G'd about 10 mins into the flight (only 4.5g limit) so we had to come back early which sent the Gossip factory off with "there's been another one" even before I'd landed, cheeky gits
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