Subsequent tests showed that there was no way that the fitter could get himself into the space available....but he did!
Off topic I know but true because I was there...
I was at the airport once and heard a T6 (Harvard) join the pattern. I watched it briefly, then returned to polishing the paint on a 172. Next I heard a sort of racing engine sound and an unmistakable thud. Well it might have been mistakable for exactly what it was, but it was unmistakably bad.
It turned out he was wearing a new parachute, tried to flare, couldn't do it properly as he was a big fat bas... erm, a cheerful rotund sort of fellow and had lost control. He'd gone careening over the grass and ended up inverted and I missed it
I was like the little kid at the seaside in the harrier ditching film whose not looking out to sea until after the a/c has disappeared
)
Anyway, I legged it over there - fook I was knackered, I'm just glad German soldiers werent' chasing me. When I got there I saw the canopy was slightly crushed but the bloke was ok. Everything seemed under control until I noticed a big flame come out of the exhaust stack. "Oh look at that" I remarked "It's on fire"
I grabbed a cushion and held it over the opening, and glanced up to see the filler cap directly above my head
I made a quick calculation of exactly how long I was going to stay there and decided the cut of point would be just before the cap failed and I got doused in fuel.
Anyway, being informed that his aircraft was on fire sort of galvanized the pilot. He started to wriggle out of one of the side windows, ut his rig got caught up on something. I have to hand it to him, rather than start panicing. he went back in, took the shoulder straps off and then squeezed through the broken window. It was like watching a cartoon.
So yes it's quite amazing what shapes and sizes we can make our bodies.