Man accidentally ejects himself from French jet

[mh]

I’d never fly In one of those things. Even if I was ‘gifted” the ride.

[6miths]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 6miths This could have been a real tragedy. If one reads the article it states, 'A malfunction prevented the pilot from being automatically ejected too and he was able to land the plane on the runway despite the involuntary departure of his passenger and the loss of the cockpit canopy.' And if one looks at the runway and the flight path, it passes along a major motorway and then two towns just east of the runway. A fully fueled unpiloted jet can do quite a bit of damage. Kudos to the pilot who was the beneficiary of the 'malfunction'.

Quote:

Originally Posted by f35phixer Doubt there was a malfunction, Pretty sure from what i can remember of F-18 cockpits, Pilot is always in charge i.e. he would always be in charge of a two person eject, IF the guy in back wanted to eject he could, BYE BYE !!! Once early in F-18 flight test, a guy set off ejection seat in hanger !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was a French-built Dassault Rafale and it's ejector system is meant to eject both seats if either is activated. As per various news reports, 'The Rafale-B's command ejection system is meant to fire both seats if one of the crew pulls the handle. A very confused pilot, however, was still sitting in his newly canopy-free Rafale wondering what the hell had just happened. He returned to land, conscious all the time that the seat could fire at any moment without warning. Luckily, it didn't go off.'

The BEA-E investigators' report also confirms that both seats are meant to eject sequentially after either the pilot or the bombadier/navigator/RSO pulls an ejection handle. Each canopy blows then the back seat followed finally by the pilot's seat. In this case, the 4th step did not occur. Fortuitously.

[pb4uski]

So French quality control was a virtue for a change.

[Rustic23]

In 1972 one of my fellow OV-10 drivers was taking a combat photographer up in the rear seat. In the OV, there are two ejection safety pins. One at the top of the seat and the other at the base of the seat with a red 'remove before flight' conecting the two. Prior to leaving the parking area, you pull the two pins and show them to the crew chief. The guy in the back had the streamer between the two wrapped around the ejection handle. When he held the the two pins up to show the crew chief, he ejected himself out of the A/C. Lots of smoke and noise. Quote the pilot WTF! The pilot got out, got into the spare aircraft and flew the mission. The photographer proved the OV had a 0/0 ejection system and was uninjured. (0 altitude, 0 airspeed)

added: The OV's system, if the pilot eject, both go, the back seater does not eject the front seater. Also, most fatalities from ejections are the crew waiting to long to pull the triggers. Something every pilot I know says they would never do, yet they still do. Lots of training this.