When Ejection Seats Fail

The Strategy page ^ | 10/26/2010 | The Strategy Page

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Three years ago, a navigator in the rear seat of a British Tornado jet fighter died when he fell out of the aircraft. Details of the accident are only now being made public. At the time, the aircraft had just undergone some updates and was undergoing a flight check. Some of the maintenance work involved the ejection seats. But the work on the rear ejection seat left a small (5 cm/two inch) metal part installed incorrectly. This allowed the ejection seat to come lose when the aircraft was momentarily upside down. Part of the ejection system worked, and the canopy came off. But the rockets in the ejection seat did not ignite, and the navigator hit his head on the tail of the aircraft. Worse, the parachute did not deploy from the seat, and the navigator, still strapped in, fell nearly 2,000 meters to his death. The inquest is trying to establish who was at fault for the ejection seat failure. Several people are involved in checking out an ejection seat during and after this maintenance, and there are demands that those responsible for the screw-up be identified. Ejection seats costs between $200,00-300,000. Most ejection seats weigh about half a ton, and are complex bits of technology. There's a lot that can go wrong, but rarely do you have accidents like this. Ejection seats became essential as military aircraft became so fast, that a pilot could not safely climb out of the cockpit and jump. With the higher speed, there was the danger of hitting the tail. Also, escaping pilots were often injured or stunned, and unable to get out quickly enough.

[Yo-Yo]

Then there's Lt. Keith Gallagher.

[IYAS9YAS]

Wow. What an ordeal. Excellent emergency flying by his pilot.

[chaosagent]

These things can be dangerous.

Back in the early 70’s I was working for a DOD contractor at MCAS Beaufort doing IRAN’s (Inspect and Repair As Necessary) on Marine F-4B’s and D’s. On some models we were depotting, cleaning, and repotting every (Yes, EVERY) electrical plug on the aircraft.

One day we had a new plane coming in and I was send out to prepare it for being pulled in the hanger. The seats had already been safetied by the Egress guys, but apparently it didn’t take.

I had just been in the front seat removing the stick and checking some other settings in the cockpit. After climbing down, my foot had just touched the ground, when the rear seat fired off, shattering the canopy, and sending shards flying everywhere.

I didn’t realize at first what had happened. I just ducked under the fuselage, hoping the plane was not in the process of exploding. I figured it out when, at few seconds later, the seat came crashing to the ground about a 100 yards away, just missing an F-4D and a A6 parked on the flightline. The chute never deployed. It was a few minutes before I realized how close I had come to being turned into hamburger.

Of course, I also almost got crushed when a tailhook came loose and dropped right after I walked under it. I quickly figured out why the old-timers always walked around the tail, and not under it.

On second thought, maybe someone WAS out to get me.