OOOPS! Man accidentally ejects himself from fighter jet during surprise flight

Nothing like ejecting from a perfectly good aircraft

 

Report makes no sense at all. He was pulling positive "g" so that should have forced him into his seat, not floated him out of it. He panicked and grabbed the handles by mistake, no doubt. Sounds like a really crummy egress briefing or no egress briefing took place before the flight.

 

Looking at the graph, he was pulling -0.63g at time of ejection. Either way, somebody is going to have lots of 'splaining to do!!

 

The story is already one year old, made front page news last year. Not exactly Armée de l'Air and Dassault greatest achievement...

https://www.aerotime.aero/clement.charpentreau/24788-fighter-jet-crash-averted-by-defect-in-civil-ejection-incident

Rgds

 

After a bunch of accidents, USAF stopped letting anyone sit in the seat of aircraft with ejection systems at airshows.

 

You have to question the wisdom of strapping (and badly, as it turned...) a 64 year old man (I'm 60, by the way, so not an attack on its age, but nevertheless, we know these things are for young men, do we?) who did not want to fly in the beast and was not prepared to, hence the panicking. Frankly, this is very amateurish...

Rgds

 

I had my photo taken in the cockpit of a Navy A-7 at the Cecil Field open house in Jacksonville in around 1973. I presumed that the ejection seat had been thoroughly safetied.....

 

In the early 1980s my Mom (passed away 2002) was dating a Lieutenant Colonel from McChord AFB (she worked in Public Affairs and toured big shot brass around the world) - he took her up in a brand spanking new F18 when the new F18 squadron was established at McChord in 1983 (I think).

Thankfully, no similar mishap occurred

I'm sure the rules now preclude such an adventure - at least I would hope.

But she talked about the thrill of that flight for years

Jedi

 

Probably much like my flight in a P-51. Unforgettable.

 

When I attended the Farnborough airshow in 1990, the two-seat Su-27 was giving VIPs joyrides after the show was over for the day. I was waiting at Aldershot station for the train back to London when the Su flew over. Who would have thought that the sight of a first-line Soviet fighter flying over Britain would not have been a cause for panic? Anyway, I wonder how the Soviets safetied the ejection seat for their passengers.

 

I have never heard of a flight with a non-crew member where his or her ejection system was safed. Many pilots chose not to give the passenger the ability to eject himself and the pilot on aircraft with that capability, but the rear seat was never safed that I heard about.

 

premature ejectulation

tip your waitress, I'm here all week

 

They probably didn't...Russians and safety, that does not necessarly go together.

Rgds

(I love their country, by the way; and, on the whole, I love them too...BUT I don't harbor any illusion about "certain character traits", shall we say...)

 

I agree about the character traits, they seem to have a built in acceptance of life-ending events. An old B-24 pilot friend, now gone, told me of a flight back to his base in Italy in a Russian C-47. They were solid IFR in the mountains and my friend was nervously sitting behind the pilot who turned around with a big grin on his face and said, "You afraid to die?" Lew said that the thought occurred to him during the entire flight.

 

Doubtful that an F-18 (Navy) squadron was ever based at McChord (Air Force).

 

McChord is a trash hauler base primarily, but up until 1989 (unit operational from 1942-1989) the 318 FIS operated F-106s and then F-15s out of McChord. Flight could have been in an F-15B instead of an F/A-18. Easy for civilians to misremember fighter designations.


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MUST have been. I was a fire alarm tech and did the installation of the fire alarm for the new hangar, and got to see the jets UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL (with a few fellows with big guns watching me!)

The hangar was being built brand new to welcome these planes.

Jedi

 

So what do they do with the #7 F16 Thunderbird? Is the guest seat in the back only allowed to eject if the pilot goes out?

 

That's indeed VERY russian. Most of them still have a kind of fatalism, which might come from the size of the country and the near-impossible transportation in the past, and from the hardships they were used to endure. Serfdom was only abolished in 1861, not to mention arbitrary arrestations well into the XXth century, etc, etc... I find their old quote: "God is way too high above, and the Czar is way too far" rather significant in that regard.

Rgds

P.S: how is it going, Bob? Are you quarantined?

 

Thanks for asking. We are doing fine so far, staying in the house and yard except for trips to the pharmacy and walks around the neighborhood. No way to gat bored when there is much work for me to do inside and out and several paintings to finish. I walk at least .75 miles when I shuffle out to the road or the Edmonds Marina. Always with a mask. How is it going in France?

 

Actually, a bit difficult to say; quarantine started officially on March 17th and will last at least until May 11th. If the conditions on May 11th are considered satisfying, it will then be lifted starting May 11th, BUT the numbers of new infections and deaths as for today are still rather high, meaning the epidemy has probably not stabilsed yet; AND the fear is about the "return wave": if they lift confinement too soon, there might be a return of the epidemy later...

So, for the time being, still confined; I'm in the old family house, it is big, and I have a big garden, so it's not that hard on me, personally. You are allowed to get out or buy food, you just need a valid explanation should the police ask for it. I took one of the Ferraris out this morning, my "valid" explanation was that I needed a car to buy 30 cans of beer, couldn't carry these...but I don't do that too often, the car has been asleep for five weeks...

On the whole, a bit weird...But these are the surprises of life.

Happy to know you are well; take care, this Coronavirus is a nasty thing.

Rgds

 

On two seat USAF fighters, there is a selector switch in the back that allows you to eject just yourself, or yourself and the pilot. For flights with non-aircrews, that selector is set to eject the rear seat only, just like it was for the Mirage in the original post. When I flew in the back seat of F-4s, F-16s, and F-15s as part of an evaluation team, I was always asked to put the switch in both. Their quote was "If you are scared enough to eject, I want to go with you."

 

Three selection options for the Viper in tub models. With non-aircrew in the pit (like for T-Bird #7 on a media ride) the selector was set to allow the back seat rider to eject themselves only when they pulled the handle. That same “Normal” setting allowed me to eject both occupants, sequenced back to front, if I pulled the handle from the front seat. When flying with two experienced aircrew, I’d set the selector to “Aft” which meant either dude pulls the handle and both seats go, sequenced back to front. There is also a “Solo” setting, where either seat goes immediately if that seat’s handle is pulled...all sequencing is lost in “Solo,” so that is a bad selection if two peeps on board.