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That has to be very disheartening to observe. Our parachutes don't come with a cutter for the shrouds. I may have to bring a Kabar just in case. The life vest provided for pilots with an ejection seat is supposed to auto-inflate in case the pilot is unconscious. The "horse collars" we use are manual so we can perform underwater egress. Ditto for the ones on the helicopters.

My dad was on the Randolph (aircraft carrier) early in his career. He hated the blast deflector that spewed all over the bridge. He directed his staff to install the other blast deflector to point away from the bridge. Success. That became the Navy standard installation.

"Our parachutes don't come with a cutter for the shrouds. I may have to bring a Kabar just in case. The life vest provided for pilots with an ejection seat is supposed to auto-inflate in case the pilot is unconscious. The "horse collars" we use are manual so we can perform underwater egress."

When did this change?

I flew tactical jets off carriers for over 10 years, one of the advances was the SEAWARS, automatic Koch fitting release and LPU (that's Life Preserver), inflator. The only A/C I was aware of without the auto inflate was on the helos, and maybe the E-2/C-2. As for shroud cutters, they were standard equipment in the SV-2 (left pocket) for any configuration with a parachute enabled aircraft.

I'm not sure what you are flying in, but you should check with your PR's to see what you really have.