Posted on 05/15/2024 6:01:29 AM PDT by Red Badger
Aviation Ping!......................
What exactly happens when an ejection seat activates? I believe there’s some sort of explosion designed to hurl the pilot (and his seat) well clear of the cockpit. How far does it throw the pilot? In this case, with the ejection occurring on the ground, would it throw him far enough into the air that he’d be severely injured when he hit the ground?
Yes......................
In 1980 at an Air Show at the old Willow Grove NAS in Pennsylvania was sitting in a Navy S3 Viking Jet set as a ground display. They were allowing people to sit in the cockpit. A 7 year old boy was in one of the seats and somehow activated the multiple step and sequence ejection mechanism and was killed after being ejected and landing on the nearby tarmac.
RIP and Prayers for the Family and Friends.
I wonder if it’s more like what happened to Goose in Top Gun.
The Navy depot level rework facility I retired from here works this platform....and is fully certified to handle all maintenance on ejection seats.......hoo boy. đź«Ł
The T-6 is equipped with a Zero-Zero ejection seat.
Even the best technology is not 100%. Prayer up for the family and everyone involved.
>“An investigation into the cause of the incident is underway,”
I’m going to go w/ their failures ala ‘gun-safety’: Make sure it’s UNLOADED
Like the dumb-asses playing around w/ vehicle airbags *facepalm*
You mean aside from the fact that someone is REALLY dead, leaving family and friends behind?
One would think that by now these ejection seats would be designed as failsafe.
In a DEI world?........................
Gus had some really bad luck. It finally caught up with him on the launch pad of Apollo 1. RIP to brave souls willing to risk it all for science.
Just looking at it from the outside, I would say some maintenance guy’s stuff is in the wind. My son flew T-6s in pilot training too. I will ask him, to make sure, but I think the ejection seat, has streamers, which prevents it from being accidentally activated. The article doesn’t say, but it might have been a preflight thing, where he may have simply leaning over the cockpit. We simply don’t know, but it’s quite a jolt, when it goes off.
Early 2000’s went to the Airshow at Randolph Field (North East San Antonio) and as We were walking from the parking lot to the Flight Line and Static Display the US Army Golden Knights Skydiving Team. We watched in horror as one of the Teams Main Chute snarled and so did the Backup Chute got tangled up in the Main Chute and came down in a grove of trees at the edge of the Base !!!
Tried to find details on the accident and never found anything.
As I recall, “unloaded” wasn’t an option. Using your analogy, there were multiple safeties built into the system that I worked around. I can’t tell from the story if the seat actually ejected, or the rockets Ignited on the ground, starting a fire.
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