Posted on 04/13/2020 4:38:26 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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 employees at his firm, who had organized a joyride in a Dassault Rafale B jet for him as a treat.
But they apparently didn’t know their colleague as well as they thought. 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at fox8.com ...
Premature ejection?
This has been posted before, but never ceases to provide a chuckle.
Making sure the shoulder straps on the 5 point harnesses are tied down tight is er, really important.
Once upon a time I didn’t quite get it tight enough (thought it was comfy, didn’t make it un-comfy) and almost ended up on the desert floor 5000’ below me when we did an inverted snap roll.
But it was quite exhilarating slamming into the straps and bouncing up (or rather down) out of the seat by about 6”.
Memo to self...tighten the straps so hard, it hurts.
I remember when a Naval Air Station down in Virginia had an open house and they put out a fighter jet for the kids to look at. Somebody forgot to disarm the ejector seat, a kid hit the button and 2 of them were killed instantly. It’s like they set off a stick of dynamite under your butt.
Well glad he survived his ordeal, and now has something exciting to tell his grandchildren. 8>)
Accidentally???? NO....he wanted OUT!
I hate it when I eject too soon.
oops
Fox 1 is a semiactive radar guided missile launch
Fox 2 is infrared guided missile launch
Fox 3 is active radar guided missile launch
Fox 4 is a euphemism for midair collision
Fox 5 is throwing your backseater at someone.
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3834767/posts
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3834692/posts
There are all sorts of possibilities here. Does ejecting like this count as a retreat? If so, this is a perfectly normal French thing to do.
John McCain?
John McCain?
And the soiled raiments to prove it!
Note to self: Next company picnic, stick with the petting zoo.
Don’t see any mention of a parachute ...
It could happen to anybody.
It was reported today by:
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/france-fighter-jet-ejection-scli-intl/index.html
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a32131240/french-dassault-fighter-jet-joyride/
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/man-ejected-from-fighter-jet
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/09/frenchman_ejected_fighter_jet_retirement_jolly/
https://fox8.com/news/64-year-old-man-accidentally-ejected-himself-from-a-fighter-jet-at-2500-feet/
But their up to the minutes news is a little slow. A report from the Aviationist came out on April 9.
Interesting that he found the lever, not button, on the side of the seat and pulled it when it requires a 35 pound pull. It mentioned in the articles I read that are the latest information on the seat that the pilot remained with and safely landed the aircraft. The MK16 ejection seat used in these aircraft is a synchronized system designed for the rear pilot to fire out first so he/she doesn’t get the blast from the front seat. But they both are designed to go when either pilot pulls the lever.
Me thinks there is more, or less, to this than meets the eye. They don’t release the names of anyone. Additionally, the Cleveland television station that followed it jut happened to have a picture of the aircraft and the chute opened man. But I’m sure his heart rate, which was supposedly in full tachycardia between 126 and 132, how many times did they take that, reached much higher levels when he bailed. Must have been the same doctors that estimated the death by c-19 in the US as between 100K and 200K.
I’ve got some stock in a diamond mine in Brazil if anyone is interested?
rwoodf
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