Actually, the Spilsby abandonment started to go wrong in the escape trainer. The door was opened p
by pulling back on a lever to the right of it. Normal operation by gravity was to pull it rearward to the vertical. For airborne abandonment rocking the lever outboard and pulling it all the way rearward supplied high pressure gas to the jacks and blew it open. In the escape trainer the gate had worn away so no rocking outboard wasn’t needed.
In the Spilsby incident the Nav Radar went to the door and pulled back the lever but did not rock outboard and blow the door open. As a result it dropped a few inches and stayed there. The Radar could see the rear of the aircraft burning through the gap! He moved forward and tried to kick it down. The plotter was watching all this and he had an electrical switch to blow the door open which he operated. As a result the door opened under the Radar and the vertical rather than horizontal pull on his connector meant it did not disconnect, leaving him helpless half way out of the door. The AEO exited past him!
The plotter pulled him back in, disconnected his PEC and pushed him out before abandoning himself.
I never understood why the plotter never got a medal
There, that’s killed a few minutes of lockdown!
Last edited by Timelord; 23rd Jan 2021 at 13:06.