Best Keep Your Hands Offa Them Ejector Buttons

[Deleted]

A 64-year-old man accidentally ejected himself from a fighter jet at 2,500 feet

(CNN) — A surprise company outing to an air base 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.

www.cnn.com/travel/article/france-fighter-jet-ejection-scli-intl/index.html?fbclid=IwAR3W57Oo8e6UprrMc6-6NnkjThGe9XCcovnCcXbfVrgdpyRlXZ3yMOP18oU

PS:

[dradtke]

Well, if that's where it's located, no wonder he grabbed it when he panicked.

[brucemacneill]

French man instead of Florida man. That's a surprise.

[Cosmic Wonder]

I’ll bet that shaved a few years off his life.

Mike

[Deleted]

Apr 14, 2020 7:20:58 GMT -5 dradtke said:

Well, if that's where it's located, no wonder he grabbed it when he panicked.

Still not an "ejector button."

Reminds me of footage I saw from Desert Storm after I got home where a reporter was at the edge of the runway at King Fahd Airbase. He called afterburners on aircraft thruster boosters. Just...do a minute of research, please?

[millring]

I had thruster boosters installed in my amplifiers. They now go all the way to 12.

[epaul]

I imagine the parachute opening must have offered a bit of a relief.

[TKennedy]

I read that story last night on a professional pilot’s forum I lurk on. Several had heard similar stories on other flights.

[frazer]

One of my best mates is a designer at the company that makes the parachutes for these seats. He was very pleased when I sent him the article.

[Chesapeake]

Murphy's Law at its finest.

[drlj]

Been there, done that. Twice.

[epaul]

Cool! Were you surprised? Was the second time on purpose?

[majorminor]

So all that's required is just to yank on that yellow loop to eject? No switches to flip or pedals to push? Surprised it doesn't happen more often.

[Deleted]

Apr 14, 2020 9:11:30 GMT -5 epaul said:

I imagine the parachute opening must have offered a bit of a relief.

That particular ejection seat is a zero-zero seat, meaning you could eject from the ground with no forward speed and the parachute would still open. Theoretically.

Ejecting from a plane is NUTS. :::whistles innocently:::

[mnhermit]

Ejector seats are not safe,,,they're just safer than death.

[Deleted]

A memory tied up in two ejection seats comes back from time to time. I'll have to type it all out when I have more time, but my team did a recovery operation in 1996 on an F-4J that the Vietnamese shot down in the 60s over the Ho Chi Minh trail in eastern Laos.

We excavated the main crash area, and the area where the back seater impacted after ejecting too low, and probably while inverted. Between the two sites, we found portions of both ejection seats. We also found personal effects from both crew. We didn't, however, find the remains of either crew.

I was the last guy on the helicopter back to the basecamp in Boulapha on the day we closed the site. I remember feeling very down that we were unable to bring those guys home.

[sidheguitarmichael]

So long as we are on the subject, here's a take from ‘Murica’s voice of sanity. Thank me later:

www.caranddriver.com/news/a32131240/french-dassault-fighter-jet-joyride/