Originally Posted by
DogTailRed2
Did the chute fully open? Looks like a close run thing.
Good question! Both George Aird and his seat ended up a few feet apart inside the greenhouse and he is reported as suffering multiple fractures, but it is not clear whether those came from rate of descent or from impact with the greenhouse structure. The photo was taken during the seat separation phase, which puts it around 1.5 seconds after the BTRU tripped when the seat left the aircraft. One of the WIWOLs will no doubt be able to remember the delay from initiation to seat movement to allow for canopy separation, but I think 0.5 secs would be close to the mark, so about 2 seconds total into the whole sequence. Yes, it was close.