Amazing crash photo sequence

Pilot Capt. Brian Bews ejects as his a CF-18 fighter jet plummets to the ground during a practice flight at the Lethbridge County Airport on Friday, July 23 for the weekend airshow in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. "He is alive and we believe right now that his injuries are non-life-threatening," Canadian Forces Capt. Nicole Meszaros told CBC News.
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BLOODY AMAZING.... glad to see that ejection... but still - major loss either way.

Cause?

Jedi

 

Amazing is an understatement!

Wonder how his seat still gets to point the right way up moments after the ejection given the "wrong way" attitude of the jet?

I bet whoever took the pics are happy it wasn't closer! Imagine the debris!

 

An acute lack of lift.

 

Ah. Of course.



Jedi

 

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATuNmqpoZyc



First picture - one nozzle open, the other closed? Is that "normal"?

 

Aces II is a great ejection seat and the Russians have even bettero ones. Lucky he did not land in the fireball.

Taz
Teerry Phillips

 

If it was ugly would it have lifted

That is some crazy pictures, glad to see the pilot escaping that.

 

+1

That was pretty low.

 

My armchair piloting says that he was doing a dirty pass to show off the airplane (as they do) and he lost power on the #2 engine. That would be REAL tough to recover from as you don't have much airflow over the vert. stab and that limits your rudder authority. You also can't firewall the number one engine as you'll have asymmetric thrust issues with no rudder authority.....


I'm just really glad he's ok.

 

His seat isn't pointed up, it only looks that way due to the angle the photo was taken from, he's sideways alright.

The ACESII seat has a stabilization and pitch control gyro on the bottom that spins up and stabilizes the seat in whatever direction he ejects so it doesn't tumble.

In the photo sequence you can see the propellant still blasting from the stapac stabilizing him as the drouge chute is just about to inflate to slow the seat which will then seperate him from the seat and deploy his recovery chute during seat/man separation part of the ejection sequence.

Those are damn good photos and a perfect example of being in the right place at the right time.

In the fighter world there is absolutely no F***ing around when it comes to these seats. You have to have specialized training to do anything to them and these photos illustrate why. It absolutely has to work 100 and not 99 percent of the time.

I just got home yesterday from some intense training for these seats in Texas for over a week to finish my certifications. It's ironic this happened right now, I bet the instructor would get a kick out of seeing these images. The ejection was dang near out of envelope like that Thuderbird a few years back which was technically out of envelope. Both ejected at the very last possible fraction of a second.

Another life saved!

 

From the video it appears that he had full left rudder but the aircraft still continued to yaw right.
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What a brilliant piece of technology.. thanks for the explanation!

 

Why? Because they have to

 

Turns out I was wrong. It was a Martin Baker Mk 10.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

CF-18-MK
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I think it is a NACES seat....navy version of the Air Force ACES II seat. But, it's been 12 years since I last flew one....and my memory is fading. We had to put the parachute in the headbox so we could get a chute at zero/zero(on the carrier). As I recall, it had three modes to choose from, this one obviously the low and slow mode. It had lead shot on the risers of the parachute, with an explosive to to get the chute to open very rapidly....never had to use it, but that opening shock on that must have been a doosey. Really sucked in ACM to try and check six around that monsterous headbox.

If you look closely at the exhaust nozzles, the right one is "closed". That means Mil Power or less. The left is "open", which is either idle or burner. Those nozzles are opened and closed with respect to pressure in the engine and to a certain extent, throttle postion. So...most likely scenario, left in burner....right has compressor stalls. Only had one engine stall on me in 11 years flying it.

2500 hours in the now "classic" Hornet.....many years ago. I don't feel like I'm a "classic" just yet.

Bill

 

Here are some more images from a different angle.. notice at the point of impact the trail of flame from the #1 engine..


http://www.flickr.com/photos/sloppyshooter/sets/72157624567009548/with/4821560103/

 

Very strange crash, definitely some major problem with the plane right before it hit the deck. It's amazing to see just what kind of forces that pilot must have been subjected to while watching the video, hope he makes a full recovery.

 

Yep, that's the one. It doesn't look anything like an ACESII or a variant. These are somewhat like the Martin Bakers we had in the F-4G and E's with a face curtain. I think they were MK7 if I recall. The F-18 is a lot newer version and probably a better seat.

I recognized that pack under the seat that is visible from the front in that photo between the leg restraints as being common on Martin Bakers. They cost about three times a much as an ACES also. The ACESII is used in the F-15, 16, A-10, F-22 that I know of and maybe others.

Regardless who made it, I'm glad it kicked him in the seat of the pants and out of harms way as advertised.

 

When in doubt, look it up. Worked for me. Also looked it up in Goodrich's site.

http://www.martin-baker.com/products/Ejection-Seats.aspx

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

I was thinking a pilot error stall at first, but after looking at this picture I'm not so convinced:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4139/4821566817_c0c1f19a45.jpg

Look at the thrust nozzles. That doesn't look normal at all.

 

ha dogdish great commentary,what did you fly in the navy?,,that pilot was damed lucky

 

The mode isn't selectable by the pilot, it is automatically selected based on airspeed at time of ejection and altitude; the altitude being monitored constantly. The recovery sequencer determines all that and initiates one of 3 modes. Mode one is zero/zero and low speed/altitude perameters. Mode II is more for normal operating envelope below 15000 MSL.

Above 15000 and up to 600 knots is mode III zone and that will leave the pilot in the seat on the oxygen bottle, free falling until it gets below 15000 feet so he can breathe and it then seperates from the pilot and deploys his recovery chute. The survival kit he is sitting on goes with him.

 

I wonder if this is similar to that MiG-29 airshow crash of a number of years ago, where one engine suddenly lost power and caused a sudden yaw that was unrecoverable.