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French pensioner ejected from fighter jet after accidentally grabbing bang seat* hand


Raisuli

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A little bit sad that the only thing that prevents the total loose of the jet was a malfunction of the pilots seat...

All the other stuff that happened before (bad information of the passenger, belts that are not thigh, loosing helmet and mask… putting in a guy who honestly does not really do that ride.. ) makes me wonder how they are working over there... such stuff normally does not happen at the first time.. it works 20 times, 50 times.. maybe 100 times until something like this happens.

 

For those who can read French.. the report has a lot of interesting details in it...

DCS F-16C Blk. 40/42 :helpsmilie:

Candidate - 480th VFS - Cupra | 06

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Wow...

 

In safety world, they talk about how accidents are usually caused by a chain of events or failures, that lead up to the accident happening.

 

In this, I many links in the chain of events.

 

First off, they should have ASKED HIM if he wanted to fly. He may have felt pressured to make bosses happy by going along with it. He might have felt if he refused, that he'd be fired.

 

Second, why didn't the AF brief him beforehand, get him to get familiar with the ejection seat, it's proceedures, and how and why all his suit/gear worked, something which many "guest passengers" get when riding in fighters of other nations?

 

Third, why didn't the doctor think to himself "why is his heart rate so high? Is he under stress? Is someone of his age, who may or may not be exercising regularly, truly safe up there? IF his heartrate is like this in an examination room, what will it be like pulling G's? Should I maybe ground him from the flight?"

 

Fourth, why didn't the mechanic do a more thourough check of the guest passenger, who isn't trained for this and could easily and did make many minor mistakes and omissions? Now, the mechanic might not have been told this was an untrained civilian, but someone should have told the mechanic, and insisted he do a complete check of the guest.

 

Fifth, the pilot should have consulted the guest about what kind of flight experience he'd like... it's easy to assume a guest to a fighter jet would want to have all the G's, but in this case the assumption would be wrong. He could have had a gentle flight, albeit still fast and fun, had the pilot considered maybe our retiree didn't want a rollercoaster, but maybe a nice cruise in a fancy jet.

 

 

It's almost surprising this didn't end with the passenger... well, dying. Ejections are sometimes fatal. And parachute landings can also be fatal too, and often enough result in broken legs or ankles. On rare occasions people can land in rivers or bodies of water and drown. Look at the realities for carrier based fighter jocks if they have to eject over the ocean. It's quite serious business.

 

It's a fun article for us, and frankly I'd have loved to be given that opportunity, but sometimes we need to consider that not everyone feels the same as us!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some more info, along with the opinion of an experienced Viper / Hornet pilot. He was USAF F-16 and then got an exchange tasking where he flew with the USMC in the Hornet. Recently he has been doing Agressor work through a civilian contractor company providing to the US military.

 

Civilian Ejects Himself from a Fighter Jet | Accident Report Discussion

C.W. Lemoine

 

${1}
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