Originally Posted by
BEagle
The Fighter Controller who managed to bang out of a Hawk over the North Sea. Fished out safe and sound. I watched the Hawk landing at Wattisham - it looked very odd with the pole sticking out of the back cockpit.
By coincidence I was airborne on the same exercise and heard the MAYDAY call, including the amusing description of water entry, disappearance of survivor, followed by reappearance a few seconds later.
The seat occupant has always said the seat just fired without any warning and that his hands were nowhere near the handle. There was a lot of chat at the time that suggested the close-aboard cross turn may have had a bearing on events and that, if the seat was ever found, the handle would be fully extended. Only one man knows the truth and we must take him at his word but I believe that, other than some of the early top latch failures, it is the only case of an inadvertent ejection that did not involve some form of physical interaction with the system.
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