A couple of points which may have been clarified by others, but I have just come back to this thread. The seat sear was pulled out by a lanyard attached to the departing canopy. If that did not go nothing would.
The Spilsby RAT drill event caused controversy at the time, but the Board had to calm down when all the evidence had been excavated from the hole. As I recall, and I was on the squadron at the time, the aircraft was doomed from the moment the RAT handle was pulled. Certainly it over-volted and there was in those days no means of isolating it. There was evidence of previous pitting on the fuel pipe which was at the seat of the fire, and frankly the AEO could not take any blame for the accident.
Last edited by 50+Ray; 24th Jan 2016 at 07:45.
Reason: Typos