Posted on 04/13/2020 2:35:22 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
A surprise company outing to an air base caused a 64-year-old French man so much stress that he flung himself from a fighter jet in midair, grabbing the ejector button in a panic and tumbling through the skies above France before landing in a field.
The man had been surprised by fellow employees, who had organized a joyride in a Dassault Rafale B jet for him as a treat.
Once the man arrived at the Saint-Dizier air base in northeastern France and realized what his co-workers had arranged, he began to feel extremely stressed, according to a fairly remarkable aviation accident report by a French government agency. The unnamed man had never expressed any desire to fly in a fighter jet and had no previous military aviation experience. Thanks to a watch he was wearing, investigators noticed that "his heart was in full tachycardia" before the flight, with a heart rate ranging from 136-142 beats per minute.
But the man went through with the ride, joining a three-plane training exercise as a passenger. The Rafale B is used by the French air force, and has a maximum speed of 870 mph.
At 2,500 feet AGL, the pilot began to climb, the passenger panicked and reached for something to hold onto -- the ejector seat button -- and the 64-year-old flew from the fighter jet. To make matters worse, he had not securely attached his helmet, which went flying in midair.
The man avoided seriously injury after tumbling to earth in a field near the German border. Investigators concluded that the error was caused by an involuntary reflex, prompted by stress and the jet's sudden movement.
The pilot was not ejected and managed to land the plane safely. The passenger, meanwhile, was taken to a nearby hospital after the flight.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
“Zut alors, Pierre! You’ll have fun. It’ll be the time your life!”
WEll if you’re going to take the ride take the FULL ride...he did something that hardly anyone else in history has ever done.
The seats are designed to automatically deploy the parachute as may times, the pilot would be injured during the ejection.
Yes
“Is it common to have separate ejection seats in
a fighter jet?
Marko.”
When I was in ROTC, I had a ride in the back of an F-4. There was a handle in the rear cockpit that when set, would eject the pilot if the WSO ejected. When it was off, the pilot would only eject if he triggered his own seat.
Good to know....just in case I do that.
I’d like to hear the air-to ground conversation from the pilot: “Oh, that parachute? That’s my passenger taking a joy ride.”
To be fair to the French, the flower of French manhood was destroyed in WW1.
73.3% of their forces were killed or wounded.
England had a 35.8% casualty rate.
USA casualty rate was 8.1%.
Only Russia, 76.3%, and the Austro-Hungarian empire, 90.0%, fared worse than France.
In WW2 Belgium didn’t build it’s part of the defensive line to connect to the Maginot Line. The bunkers they did build were built without rebar. Without a defensive line the Germans could flash through Belgium anywhere they wanted and picked the “impossible” Ardennes to launch their offensive into the rear of the English and French forces.
Once the enemy gets in your rear...oh well.
The French lost approximately 60,000 men defending Dunkirk so the English forces could be evacuated. That resulted in England saving 330,000 men who would continue the fight.
The French knew they weren’t going anywhere. They could have easily just given up. They didn’t.
As for the English, in 1941 the Australians held Tobruk for five months before being relieved.
In 1942 the English surrender Tobruk in five days.
At Singapore 80,000 English, expecting attack from sea, surrendered to 36,000 Japanese attacking by land in eight days.
I used to make fun of the French until I looked at the numbers.
BTW, French politicians suck butt.
Flying a fighter jet is a deadly serious business.
Whoever authorized this person for this ride, and then allowed him to continue after he expressed fear should be court martialled, as well as the pilot who allowed it and apparently did not give an adequate safety briefing to his passenger.
It sure speaks to laxity and failure to follow the most basic protocol, doesn’t it? I can’t imagine a pilot accepting a passenger who did not want to go along, advanced age, fast heart rate, and no briefing. How in the world did a group of company people even arrange for such a ride-along?
Rather, I think it was a example of right motive, wrong means, although there was a mixed motive on the part of his friends, which was to see the show.
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