Without the officially (BoI) documented account of Peter Tait this story would never be believed.
Utilisation of Escape Facilities. Captain. The aircraft had rolled to port through at least 90 degrees but not more than 120 degrees, with a nose down angle of between 15 and 20 degrees when the Captain ejected from an approximate height of 300 feet by pulling the face blind. The blind partially covered the right side of his face because he only used his right hand to pull the face screen firing handle. Due to the attitude of the aircraft and the low height at the time of ejection the parachute had only streamed when the pilot passed through high tension cables close to the scene of the accident. The canopy caught one cable, pulled that cable onto the next one and caused an electrical short. This fused the nylon panels together which acted as a brake, and the pilot was lowered to the ground. As his feet touched he undid the quick release box and walked away.
Thanks to Goggle Earth we can now see just what a miracle this was. Enlarged inset, below, shows the 3 phase overhead wires running along the hedge line. Rough track of the aircraft in green.
This
has to be the most incredible ejection of all time, bar none.
