First solo flight for a new pilot in Moosejaw, Sask. The pilot is on the runway waiting to go, and his cord for his radio was through the ejector handle, he adjusts his helmet etc some more and next thing he knows, he’s floating back down under a canopy.
He’s lucky it was a 0/0 ejection system. The snowbird planes (Tutors) need to be 0/60. Zero altitude but forward speed of 60 knots.
Our safety bulletins in the 1970’s listed a few events like this, usually maintenance related. Some guy was crawling around the cockpit, snagged a handle and that’s all she wrote.
Hey! It was still his first solo flight.