Ejection seats, some salutary anecdotes

[NutLoose]

While looking for something else I came across these, a collection of previous incidents, both sad and amusing.

Beware! Ejector Seat Live - RAF Forum (http://rafforum.activeboard.com/t6351108/beware-ejector-seat-live/?page=1&sort=oldestFirst)

[Exascot]

Coincidentally I just noticed this obituary this morning:

Squadron Leader Jake McLoughlin - obituary - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11221111/Squadron-Leader-Jake-McLoughlin-obituary.html)

An ejector seat tester :eek:

[Basil]

Recollect taking young lady into hangar one evening to show her JP cockpit.
The pins were in and sat there thinking: 'Hmm, just like being in the car, isn't it?' :E
Fortunately, just then, before any thrashing about took place, the hangar doors opened a bit and a tractor drove in.

p.s. Alcohol was involved.

[Whenurhappy]

Yesterday I toured an Aerospace Company assembly plant and the translator - not particularly savvy with aerospace terms - referred to the 'Ejaculation Seat'. * As the only native English-speaker in our group I struggled, really struggled, to maintain my composure.

* In the local language, the verb to eject and to ejaculate is the same, to be fair.

[Pontius Navigator]

And it doesn't give your young jock a hard on?

[goudie]

When the first seats to have a seat pan handle were introduced our Station Armoury F/Sgt, when giving a safety lecture, gave the 'it's a well known fact that, when a man is in danger the first thing he does is reach for his balls', as the reason for it's location.

[david parry]

This is for real.......we had a Naval airman on the squadron...NA Shrimpton...he was known as the fastest man alive in the FAA...after escaping from a Sea Vixen, seat ejection in the hangar on Hms Victorious.....:mad:

[Pontius Navigator]

David unless it was the same one, I heard an airman got down in to the pedal area and cleared the seat.

[david parry]

Correct....Bogey and Chief Rayner...we're not so lucky RIP

[david parry]

For those of us long enough in the tooth to remember the Ejection Seat Bus run from Seafield Park (Lee on Solent) and visited ALL air stations.
During it's visit All wafu's had to attend the ejection seat lecture (this happened many times during my career). Now the bus contained an ejection seat (unarmed) and also a few other bits of memorabilia, including a drogue attached to a length of nylon cord. The cord was stained with blood. It seems that an armourer while removing the seat neglected to disconnect the static line attached to the drogue, hence seat lifted, drogue fired large lump of metal entered armourers head through eye and exited through skull. The armourer lived to tell the tale. he was medically discharged and moved to Portsmouth. Some years later he was to appear in court on some pornography charge, his defence was that his judgement had been impaired by his injury.

[NutLoose]

Re in cockpit, page 1


While doing a major service on a hunter in No 1 hanger ( 66 sqdn) 1959, a loud bang was heard for miles around as the ejector seat of another kite in the hanger flew skywards into the roof.Now this is true, the bod in the ****pit was a guy of very small stature, Tich or Tosh Murphy i think his name was, and he'd been sitting in the seat when the Barrastat counted down, and when we rushed to see what had happened the said bod had wrapped himself around the column, his feet and legs thrust deep into the rudder appatures, the back of his jacket slightly scorched from the exploding ejector tube.He never recovered from the experience and we later heard that he had been medically discharged, a severe mental disorder.Nasty things ejector seats if not treated with respect.



Page 9

Flying for mankind will never be 100% safe. You just have to do it with the same mindset as some of the WW2 Bomber boys = "It ain't going to be me."
I seem to recall that the man who survived the seat going off was working in a Hunter. When the space was measured against the size of the bloke, it was reckoned he could not have fitted in there. Lucky only to lose a bit of chin, then.

The latest accident will be investigated thoroughly, & a reason found for it. Vitally interested will be Martin-Baker Ltd. Seats don't go off nowadays without the handle being pulled in some way, & if it was, then the sequence would follow its normal pattern. If the pilot was properly strapped in, he should probably have survived, but the B of I will tell us in the end.



I had a Sgt Plumber working for me on 1 Squadron Harriers, called Fozzie Foster. One of the only RAF N.C.O.'s I have ever encountered with a full beard. One night over a few beers I asked how come he had a full set, he said he had been working on an ejector seat in a ****pit, when he heard the timer kick in. He squeezed himself as close as he could to the instrument panel, as the seat flew past him the seat pan cught his chin and mashed it up. He was allowed to grow a beard to cover his scars. One lucky guy, I can't remember what aircraft he was working on. But when doing Engine runs I much rather sit on an upturned coke box than a bang seat anyday.

[Q-RTF-X]

Squadron Leader Jake McLoughlin - obituary - TelegraphQuite an extraordinary and most unusual career path. Worth a read.

[Pontius Navigator]

Seats don't go off nowadays without the handle being pulled in some way,

Oh but they do. IIRC, a seat being motored down had an obstruction that caused it to function and out of sequence I think.

Any interference in linkage between handle and gun could cause a bang.

[Warmtoast]

As a member of 99 Sqn I attended the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget in May 1961.

One of the exhibitors was Martin Baker and their demonstration included a 'live' ejection by "Doddy" Hayes from the back of a lorry as it raced down the runway. He ejected, parachute opened and landed safely.

Flight International's report about the show say he ejected from a static lorry, but my recollection was that the lorry was moving down the runway. Either way a very brave man and not something I would do!

[EAP86]

"Oh but they do. IIRC, a seat being motored down had an obstruction that caused it to function and out of sequence I think."

If that refers to the Harrier flown by Taylor Scott, I think that mechanism was regarded as a possibility but not confirmed. That isn't to say that there haven't been any uncommanded firings.

[4Greens]

Had an elevator jam on climb away from a low level bombing sortie. Just about to eject, looked down and realised I hadn't done up my leg straps before cat shot. Eventually got the aircraft under some sort of control and landed ashore. Received a commendation for saving the aircraft. I think I forgot to tell the enquiry about why I hadn't ejected.

[charliegolf]

One of the exhibitors was Martin Baker and their demonstration included a 'live' ejection by "Doddy" Hayes from the back of a lorry as it raced down the runway. He ejected, parachute opened and landed safely.

Flight International's report about the show say he ejected from a static lorry, but my recollection was that the lorry was moving down the runway. Either way a very brave man and not something I would do!

I read his book, "The Man in the Hot Seat". Impressive. I think he was a PTI by training wasn't he?

CG

[BOAC]

a seat being motored down had an obstruction that caused it to function and out of sequence I think - I'm pretty sure Taylor's seat did not fire. I recall the drogue gun was triggered and I think he was dragged out of the cockpit by the chute. JF will correct the facts.

[Rhino power]

Further to BOAC's input, it was thought that the cockpit Wander Lamp had become dislodged from it's mount and had found it's way under the seat. As the seat was motored to the fully 'down' position, to get the pilot's eyes out of the line of the setting sun, the lamp triggered the mechanism for manually(?) firing the drogue chute, dragging the pilot out through the canopy and unfortunately shredding the main chute in the process...

-RP

[Lima Juliet]

I remember a guy who thought he'd missed the overun cable and pulled the EJ handle just as the cable took up slack. His seat handle came out and then the force pushed it back in!

He then had a very uncomfortable few minutes waiting to see whether the seat would go off whilst the brave armourers pinned him up. :eek:

LJ

[Bigpants]

What happened to the ejection seat trainer at RAF North Luff?

Remember getting off it with a sore back and wondering what the point of it was c1980!

[John Farley]

BOAC and Rhino

Agreed.

John

[spectre150]

I have witnessed (ish) two ejection mishaps - others might remember more details more clearly.

The first one involved a Harrier at an airshow in the mid-70s (?). The pilot had finished his display, taxiied in and shut down and was climbing out of the jet when he and his seat were fired up in to the air. Sadly not a good outcome.

The second involved a Canberra front seat firing during maintenance in the hangar at Marham in the early 80s. I was in the crewroom and heard 3 loud bangs: the seat firing; the seat hitting the hangar roof and the seat crashing down on the aircraft (it hit the crew door I believe). Amazingly no one was seriously hurt IIRC. It was during that tour that 2 different pilots on 2 different occasions fired the Canberra canopy jettison circuits during pre-take off checks.

[david parry]

Saw two buccaneer ejections straight off the Cats. Sure they wouldn't have had time to jettison the Canopy, but went Through Canopy. All O/K but often wonder (this is before rocket assisted, and underwater ejection) they were very lucky, as the height was minimum. Drouge would have fired but parachute was not at sufficient height to fully deploy etc etc. Must have hit the oggin at a great rate of knots

[Warmtoast]

Further to my post #14 above about Martin Baker's and "Doddy" Hayes successful demo of a live ejection from the back of a lorry at the 1961 Paris Air Show.

This particular show was marred by an accident where the ejection seats / ejection module didn't work, when the USAF B-58 Hustler that a few days earlier had set a trans-Atlantic speed record - under 3½ hours USA to Paris. On take-off for the return to the USA the aircraft climbed and appeared to try to roll, but during the manoeuvre entered cloud and disappeared. Only later did we learn that it crashed a couple of miles from Le Bourget killing all three aboard.


A sad end to what on their arrival been a magnificent triumph.

[goudie]

Reading here it appears there were quite a few accidental firings of ejection seats, in the air and on the ground. Probably more than realised.

Whilst working on my Sqdn dispersal one day I heard an almighty bang and looking up I saw a seat coming down to earth on the 13 Sqdn dispersal next door. It transpired that a Sgt armourer was doing pull off checks on the front seat, having been reliably informed (so the story went) by the previous shift's armourer that it was dis-armed. Fortunately for him as he knelt on the seat it threw him off and all he sustained was a broken ankle. Miraculously the seat missed all the A/C. I can't recall what happened to the armourers concerned!
Sounds ridiculous I know but as an aside, is it compulsory for aircrew to fly with the pins in the stowage position? I did know of one Nav who flew with them still in the seat.

[diginagain]

Half-asleep in an issue maggot in the back of a Land Rover, parked between two fuel tankers and next to four Gazelles is not the place to be when an unoccupied F16 is approaching. Especially when the zip on your maggot jams.

[Wander00]

Diggin - hope the "maggot" was brown..................

[diginagain]

Diggin - hope the "maggot" was brown..................It was by the time I'd finished the escape and evasion phase.

[MightyGem]

Half-asleep in an issue maggot in the back of a Land Rover, parked between two fuel tankers and next to four Gazelles is not the place to be when an unoccupied F16 is approaching. Especially when the zip on your maggot jams
More info, Andy??

[Deskex76]

The first one involved a Harrier at an airshow in the mid-70s (?). The pilot had finished his display, taxiied in and shut down and was climbing out of the jet when he and his seat were fired up in to the air. Sadly not a good outcome. It was at Yeovilton, late-ish 70s, I think. I was there as a cadet and saw the whole event. Tragic. ISTR that there was something about it in Air Clues afterwards.

It wasn't the best of times for the Heron air days as a F104 crashed on finals within a year or two (one side or the other - memory fades) of that sad day.

[MightyGem]

While doing a major service on a hunter in No 1 hanger ( 66 sqdn) 1959, a loud bang was heard for miles around as the ejector seat of another kite in the hanger flew skywards into the roof.Now this is true, the bod in the ****pit was a guy of very small stature, Tich or Tosh Murphy i think his name was, and he'd been sitting in the seat when the Barrastat counted down, and when we rushed to see what had happened the said bod had wrapped himself around the column, his feet and legs thrust deep into the rudder appatures, the back of his jacket slightly scorched from the exploding ejector tube.
Having just read about this, watching today's programme of ITV's quiz show, The Chase, there was an exRAF weapons tech who re-counted the same story.

[SirPeterHardingsLovechild]

spectre150


The second involved a Canberra front seat firing during maintenance in the hangar at Marham in the early 80s. I was in the crewroom and heard 3 loud bangs: the seat firing; the seat hitting the hangar roof and the seat crashing down on the aircraft (it hit the crew door I believe). Amazingly no one was seriously hurt IIRC. It was during that tour that 2 different pilots on 2 different occasions fired the Canberra canopy jettison circuits during pre-take off checks. Wyton, for sure. T17. Armourer took a glancing blow to the jaw. I was working on the aileron centre hinge bracket and dropped all my tools on my head. I have a bit of the canopy in a box in the shed.

[diginagain]

More info, Andy?
Hi Dave, how's retirement?

Dutch F16, Soltau Luneberg Training Area, ingested a bird, 21-Mar-83. Gaz Flt 669 Sqn were on pre-Medicine Man training. A/c missed everything on the ground, but it was a bit un-nerving as we couldn't see it through the trees until it came to rest about 50m from the CP.

[spectre150]

SPHLC - yes Wyton of course. I was on Tatty Ton at the time and I guess we had just moved from Marham to Wyton. Thanks for the correction.

[MightyGem]

Hi Dave, how's retirement?
Fine thanks. Beats working for a living. Mind you, I said that about flying. :)

Dutch F16, Soltau Luneberg Training Area, ingested a bird, 21-Mar-83. Gaz Flt 669 Sqn were on pre-Medicine Man training. A/c missed everything on the ground, but it was a bit un-nerving as we couldn't see it through the trees until it came to rest about 50m from the CP.
Ahh. Before my time. I was busy packing to come back from Cyprus for my pilots course then. :ok: