DO NOT PUSH THE RED BUTTON - fighter jet passenger accidentally ejects himself

[DAB]

oops.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/f...ntl/index.html

well, he is French, so there is that.

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.

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 air base in northeastern France 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.

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).

When the jet was 2,500 feet above 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 seriously injury after tumbling 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.

maybe next year they should just go to Dave and Busters for the afternoon.

[BOTY]

Originally Posted by DAB

oops.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/f...ntl/index.html

well, he is French, so there is that.



maybe next year they should just go to Dave and Busters for the afternoon.

A HR meeting may be in their future.

[MadInNc]

He was trying to find the “surrender” button LOL

[DAB]

alternate version: France attempts to invade Germany, sends ONE POW, asks for terms of surrender.

[Datawiz]

Seems like a design flaw to me.

[Bill]

Thread in-flight music:

Steve Miller Band - Fly Like An Eagle - YouTube

[69camfrk]

Originally Posted by datawiz

Seems like a design flaw to me.

Obviously he was not properly briefed about the ejection seat. And.....there is no "button" involved. You have a handle on each side of you, and they are yellow and black. And unless you decide that you need to leave the aircraft immediately, it is a good idea to keep your dick beaters off of said handles.

[Mike Mercury]

[DAB]

Originally Posted by 69camfrk

Obviously he was not properly briefed about the ejection seat. And.....there is no "button" involved. You have a handle on each side of you, and they are yellow and black. And unless you decide that you need to leave the aircraft immediately, it is a good idea to keep your dick beaters off of said handles.

i've seen some footage where it's one handle between your legs.

anyways, RED Button sounds better.

[NEED-A-VETTE]

Originally Posted by Mike Mercury

[Paul Harvey]”And now you know...the rest of the story.”[/Paul Harvey]

[DJ_Critterus]

Meh...that's nothing.

Air Force drone pilot ejects

NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE — An Air Force drone pilot accidentally ejected from his Nevada office while flying an MQ-9 Reaper over southwestern Yemen, sources confirmed today.

“This morning, at 0900 hours, we lost 1st. Lt. Denton Link,” said Capt. Maria Lopez, an Air Force spokeswoman. “After he ejected through the ceiling of the Ground Control Station during an operation supporting the Global War on Terror. An investigation is underway to determine the cause of this terrible accident.”

With the call-sign “La-Z-Boy,” Link was well-liked in the Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) community, and his death has set the elite group of aviators on edge.

“Well, people kept saying this might happen after we started installing those ejection seats around the office,” said squadron commander Col. Mike Lee. “Drone pilots don’t really need them, but it was the end of the fiscal year and the Air Force had a surplus.”

“We probably made a mistake there,” he added.

Numerous bystanders witnessed the incident, with the aftermath drawing crowds of onlookers from across the base.

“We’re just sitting in the truck in front of that building when all of the sudden we hear this loud-ass noise and see this scrawny, pasty looking kid flying through the air,” Mike Hatfield, of facility maintenance, told reporters. “Ceiling tiles and debris were trailing behind him. The dude made it all the way to the base swimming pool. It’s a real tragedy.”

Following this accident, the Air Force has prohibited ejecting indoors until its investigation is complete.

And yes, this came from Duffel Blog

[JetMechZ16]

Imagine this happening.

12.08.1997: The pilot of the F-14B was accidentally ejected from the aircraft during a landing aboard USS John C. Stennis. It's said that the Rio had an older GPS system they used to clip to the handle on top of their console. He hadn't stowed it prior to arrestment and during the violent stop from the hook/wire the GPS system got thrown forward from momentum and hit the pilots rocket motor iniator which bypassed the whole ejection system

https://www.reddit.com/r/hoggit/comm...ction_on_deck/