I don't think it matters how the seat was activated. The fact is that once the sequence was initiated the system did not work as it should have. It would be the same as not fitting parachutes, useless.
As for the handle being in an unsafe state on 19 occasions, that's another issue entirely IMHO.
I very much beg to differ.
Imagine what would have happened had the man on brakes been ejected from this A/C ?
(I am assuming that the seats would not have been made Seat Serv to save time for example)
Would it have mattered how the seat had been initiated ? I think it might.
Would ANYONE have believed that the poor sod hadn't been playing with the seat when it went off? RAFAT sky gods are infallible after all.
Would it have received more than 2 lines in the national press.
The pinched bolt is very much the secondary point. In almost any other scenario involving normal velocity it would probably have worked and NO-ONE would ever have been the wiser until holes in the cheese lined up again. It just wasn't his day.
Did most of you sleep through your seat lectures? Were you not interested enough to look at how it worked. Some of the comments on here make it seem that way.
It is a bomb that will do it's very best to kill you. Treat it with respect at all times.
I also repeat the question. Were ANY OTHER BOLTS FOUND PINCHING THE SHACKLE during the fleet checks or was this one the only example ?
If the MB web site statement is correct and this is a UNIQUE failure in use then it is hardly a bad design is it?
Now everyone is aware of the cause would not every Pilot, Instructor, Student, Armourer and Liney from here to eternity be checking very carefully for free movement and the correct number of threads? So is not the point about MB not having told the RAF about it not now redundant. They surely will add them to the distribution list from now on. I think the point about the former flight safety structure and culture in the RAF having been dismantled explains convincingly how that happened.
Oh! and trying to blame MB for a design flaw from the 70's or before! Grow up. It was a very sad accident which I am very glad I didn't see or have any involvement in. Let us really learn from it and never repeat it so he did not die in vain.
Don't assume check.
Rant mode off ......... And Relax.
