I remember reading somewhere that ~80% of ejections were "successful", where successful was defined as the person surviving - walking away uninjured being a much smaller percentage
. Granted that was probably a couple decades ago.
So, is the modern kit much better?
Every five years, I need to take a safety class to remain qualified for flight testing. One of the scenarios is evacuating a 747 via the overhead flight deck hatch using the inertial reels. I've looked out that hatch on occasion - I'm not saying I wouldn't jump out that hatch and trust my life to the reel (and my ability to hang on to it), but the alternative would have to look rather dire
.
Does that apply to modern ejection seats as well?