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Man ejects himself out of a jet


Rye Miles #13621

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Way back when I first joined the Air Force, I can't remember if it happened in the RCAF or USAF, where the member accidentally ejected while the aircraft was still in the hanger. 

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Two cases I heard of, one was accidental -- a flight cadet was wearing an ID bracelet that had enough slack it hooked the ejector pull.
The second was the accidental inflation of a life raft in the rear cockpit.
This was apparently a known problem; a small but very sharp knife was kept handy for this eventuality and the co-pilot knifed the offending rubber, which was quite honestly crushing him.
The pilot heard a BOOM and the cockpit filled with talcum from inside the raft -- but when you hear a BOOM and it looks like your cockpit fills with smoke, you don't hesitate, you idle the throttles, tuck your elbows and yank the red handle.

The copilot managed to land the aircraft in spite of its lacking a canopy.

Both instances went into the training file under "T" for "This is what you want to avoid!"

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2 hours ago, Buffalo Creek Law Dog said:

Way back when I first joined the Air Force, I can't remember if it happened in the RCAF or USAF, where the member accidentally ejected while the aircraft was still in the hanger. 

 

I seem to recall this happening to a former boss's relative.  Might be the same incident...

 

My boss, Tony S., was a retired USAF officer who had married a Canadian girl.  About 25 years ago Tony told me the story of his wife's brother (or brother-in-law) having been an RCAF mechanic, and had been working in the cockpit of a plane when the seat fired.  Amazingly, he survived ricocheting off the ceiling, but got pretty busted up and was "never quite the same after."  :rolleyes:

 

 

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In 1964 a MacDonald Douglas tech rep was working on a problem we had on one of our brand new F4-C.

He had removed the safety pin from the rear seat and no one know what he did to eject himself through the canopy and into the ceiling of the hanger.

 

Modification were made to prevent it from happening again.

 

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I know of cases where the pilot ejected from the aircraft without releasing the canopy first.  They say it is a little hard on the neck due to the jolt of going through the canopy.  Fortunately, there is a roll bar on the back of the seat that hits the canopy first rather than the pilot's helmet.

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