Originally Posted by
Ascend Charlie
It's 40 years since I flew it, but the Martin-Baker Departure Lounge in the Macchi had a barometric unit which would not allow seat separation unless the height was below 10,000' (it was in this case), the deceleration was less than 3g (had to be) and speed less than 250kt (I think this was the 3rd condition.)
BUT as your MB seat moved up the rails a drogue gun would have fired to deploy a stabilising parachute. This would be ready to pull the main chute out the instant the altitude was in limits and tumbling stopped.
From the accident video I can’t help thinking that had these been MB seats, even an earlier Mk4, we would have seen drogue deployment and seat separation on the video.