Re in cockpit, page 1
While doing a major service on a hunter in No 1 hangar ( 66 sqdn) 1959, a loud bang was heard for miles around as the ejector seat of another kite in the hangar flew skywards into the roof.Now this is true, the bod in the ****pit was a guy of very small stature, Tich or Tosh Murphy i think his name was, and he'd been sitting in the seat when the Barrastat counted down, and when we rushed to see what had happened the said bod had wrapped himself around the column, his feet and legs thrust deep into the rudder appatures, the back of his jacket slightly scorched from the exploding ejector tube.He never recovered from the experience and we later heard that he had been medically discharged, a severe mental disorder.Nasty things ejector seats if not treated with respect.
Page 9
Flying for mankind will never be 100% safe. You just have to do it with the same mindset as some of the WW2 Bomber boys = "It ain't going to be me."
I seem to recall that the man who survived the seat going off was working in a Hunter. When the space was measured against the size of the bloke, it was reckoned he could not have fitted in there. Lucky only to lose a bit of chin, then.
The latest accident will be investigated thoroughly, & a reason found for it. Vitally interested will be Martin-Baker Ltd. Seats don't go off nowadays without the handle being pulled in some way, & if it was, then the sequence would follow its normal pattern. If the pilot was properly strapped in, he should probably have survived, but the B of I will tell us in the end.
I had a Sgt Plumber working for me on 1 Squadron Harriers, called Fozzie Foster. One of the only RAF N.C.O.'s I have ever encountered with a full beard. One night over a few beers I asked how come he had a full set, he said he had been working on an ejector seat in a ****pit, when he heard the timer kick in. He squeezed himself as close as he could to the instrument panel, as the seat flew past him the seat pan cught his chin and mashed it up. He was allowed to grow a beard to cover his scars. One lucky guy, I can't remember what aircraft he was working on. But when doing Engine runs I much rather sit on an upturned coke box than a bang seat anyday.