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Recursion

(56,582 posts)
Thu Apr 9, 2020, 08:02 AM Apr 2020

French fighter jet crash averted by defect -- absolutely crazy story

https://www.aerotime.aero/clement.charpentreau/24788-fighter-jet-crash-averted-by-defect-in-civil-ejection-incident

This is some of the craziest shit I've ever heard

The civilian was already nervous when he entered the cockpit, with his heart rate recorded between 136 and 142 beats per minute. The investigation found that the safety checks of the passenger had been approximate at best. He carried out most of his installation into the cockpit by himself. As a consequence, his visor was up, his anti-g pants were not worn properly, his helmet and oxygen mask were both unattached, and his seat straps were not tight enough.

...

“Discovering the feeling of the negative load factor, the insufficiently strapped and totally surprised passenger held onto the ejector handle and activated it unintentionally,” states the report. During the ejection, the civilian lost his helmet and oxygen mask. Due to a technical flaw of the seat, the dinghy failed to inflate, but fortunately, the incident happened above land. The passenger sustained minor injuries.

...

Indeed, under normal conditions, both the pilot and his passenger are ejected when one of them pulls on the ejection handle. The BEA-E explains the procedure of a Rafale 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.



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French fighter jet crash averted by defect -- absolutely crazy story (Original Post) Recursion Apr 2020 OP
A Cool-Headed Pilot, Sir The Magistrate Apr 2020 #1

The Magistrate

(95,247 posts)
1. A Cool-Headed Pilot, Sir
Thu Apr 9, 2020, 08:05 AM
Apr 2020

And a damned lucky man....

"A good landing is one you can walk away from. A great landing is one where you can use the airplane again."

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