Sounds like he did not get too good a briefing from the life support officer. Luckily for him a zero-zero seat.
Not an inexpensive mistake either. Navy pilot friend spoke of someone accidently blowing a canopy sitting on the ground in flight school. That alone was a lot of money. Martin Baker doesn't give those seats away. On the bright side, its a lot less than throwing an airplane away. Thats happened a couple of times lately. Marine Pilot friend said a squadron mate in OV10s jettisoned a drop tank without permission and they took that so seriously it could have cost him his wings.
When I flew with an F-4G squadron in the 80s at Spangdahlem in Germany, the F4s had a selector switch that allowed the back seater to eject only himself or both he and the pilot. I asked my young pilot how he wanted the switch set. He said to select both ejecting because if I was scared enough to eject, he wanted to go with me.
UPS 747-8 engine pod strike on landing during typhoon at Taipei on Aug 13 '25 . Just the vid Analysis of incident .
WOW! CRAZY! SICK! ........ What could go wrong? "Do or Do Not, There Is No Try" Image Unavailable, Please Login .
Watch it again at takeoff. There are lots of wheel tracks going down the side of the ridge...seems to be SOP
1931-'34 Fiat AS.6 liquid-cooled, 3,000(?) hp V-24 with contra-rotating propellers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_AS.6 Image Unavailable, Please Login . Image Unavailable, Please Login . .