Man, 64, Accidentally Ejects Himself From Fighter Jet

If it doesn't fit in any of the other forums, post it here!
User avatar
lakelandman
Posts: 1234
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2018 1:12 am
Location: Lakeland

Man, 64, Accidentally Ejects Himself From Fighter Jet

Post by lakelandman »

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/fran ... index.html
A surprise company outing to an airbase 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 airbase in northeastern France in March 2019 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.
Related content
I was stolen from, beaten up and swindled -- it was the best trip ever
The unnamed man had never expressed any desire to fly in a fighter jet and had no previous military aviation experience, investigators discovered.
And thanks to a watch he was wearing which could measure his heart rate, investigators noticed that "his heart was in full tachycardia" before the flight, with a recorded heart rate ranging from 136 to 142 beats per minute.
But the man went through with the ride, joining a three-plane training exercise as a passenger. The Rafale B is used by the French air force and has a maximum speed of nearly 1,400 kilometers per hour (870 miles per hour).

Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety
When the jet was 2,500 feet above the ground and the pilot began to climb, the passenger panicked and reached for something to hold onto.
Unfortunately, that something was the ejector seat button -- and the 64-year-old flew from the fighter jet.
To make matters worse, he had not securely attached his helmet, which went flying in midair.
Fortunately, the man avoided serious injury after parachuting to earth in a field near the German border.
Investigators concluded that the error was caused by an involuntary reflex, prompted by stress and the jet's sudden movement.
The pilot was not ejected and managed to land the plane safely, despite suffering some minor facial injuries during the ordeal.
The passenger, meanwhile, was taken to a nearby hospital after the flight.
Everybody's got a plan until they get hit.
User avatar
Pissed Off Patriot
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2020 8:57 am
Location: St. Cloud

Post by Pissed Off Patriot »

i wonder how much that cost. It can't be cheap to set the ejector seat back in place.
User avatar
Tenzing_Norgay
Posts: 1579
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2018 1:55 pm
Location: Your mom's house, Trebek!

Post by Tenzing_Norgay »

Image
- I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you... -
User avatar
flcracker
Posts: 634
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2018 3:21 pm
Location: Sarasota

Post by flcracker »

Pissed Off Patriot wrote: Thu Apr 16, 2020 8:04 pm i wonder how much that cost. It can't be cheap to set the ejector seat back in place.
€75,000,000 Euros, if it had worked properly.

https://taskandpurpose.com/military-tec ... nical-flaw
But of all the things that went wrong during this incident, one of them actually ended up saving the aircraft. According to Aerotime, the ejection handle should have ejected both the man and the pilot, but a technical flaw got in the way (emphasis ours):

The fighter jet was set up to, under normal conditions, eject both the pilot and his passenger when one of them pulls on the ejection handle. The BEA-E explains the procedure of a Rafale double ejection in four stages: first, the back canopy is shattered by a line of explosives embedded into the glass, before the passenger seat is ejected. Then, the front canopy is also destroyed, and the pilot seat is the last to leave the fighter jet.

But in this case, the last stage failed and, despite his canopy being ejected, the pilot remained in his seat. Local media reported at the time that the glass of the canopy had slightly injured his hands. Nonetheless, he remained master of his aircraft. “He then remained calm to pilot his plane despite the multitude of failure messages that the on-board computer displays and an unusual aircraft centering following the loss of the rear seat and the canopy,” says the investigation, which analyzed the radio recordings.

To be clear: while the civilian was flying through the air (he sustained minor injuries), the aircraft's pilot was able to safely land the jet at the airbase. For 24 hours after the flight, a "safety perimeter" was even established around the jet in case the ejection seat activated before it was safely defused. That's some damn good flying right there.
....and some rin up hill and down dale, knapping the chucky stanes to pieces wi' hammers, like sae mony road-makers run daft - they say it is to see how the warld was made!
Saint Ronan's Well - Sir Walter Scott, Bart. (1824)
User avatar
Pissed Off Patriot
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2020 8:57 am
Location: St. Cloud

Post by Pissed Off Patriot »

flcracker wrote: Thu Apr 16, 2020 9:03 pm
Pissed Off Patriot wrote: Thu Apr 16, 2020 8:04 pm i wonder how much that cost. It can't be cheap to set the ejector seat back in place.
€75,000,000 Euros, if it had worked properly.
Yeah, the whole damn plane, because it crashes.

I guess ya gotta look on the bright side. Better to find out now that it didn't work properly, because if they had needed it to work properly in the correct situation, it wouldn't have.
User avatar
Legio
Site Admin
Posts: 744
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2018 2:14 pm

Post by Legio »

He just had to say that he didn't want to go and I would have taken his seat. If you boys want to buy me a trip in a Rafale, by all means, do it.
osprey21
Posts: 1527
Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2018 5:30 pm
Location: Manatee County

Post by osprey21 »

I'll bet that was better than an old 'E' ticket ride at Disney.
Believe nothing the MSM tells you.
TonyR
Moderator
Posts: 460
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2018 3:57 pm
Location: W.Volusia

Post by TonyR »

I'd be willing to bet he shit himself,literally,what with not expecting that to happen,LOL.
Three can keep a secret.......if two are Dead !
User avatar
Bmup
Posts: 278
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2018 3:59 pm
Location: Boca Raton

Post by Bmup »

On the bright side, he absolutely knows for certain that there's nothing wrong with his heart. Although he'll probably never see those shoes again. :mrgreen:
"Biden/Fetterman 2024 - It's a No Brainer!"

"No society ever thrived because it had a large group of parasites living off those who produce." - Dr. Thomas Sowell
User avatar
Outgunu
Posts: 192
Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2018 12:46 am
Location: Jacksonville

Post by Outgunu »

1st off, anyone flying in a military jet should get ejection seat training prior to their ride to prevent what happened. 2nd, normally only the pilot command ejects causing both him and the back seat to eject, the back seat normally ejects alone if their ejection handle is pulled. Furthermore, det cord blows off the canopy, it doesn't just shatter it. This whole thing doesn't sound right.
Post Reply