Originally Posted by
Bob Viking
I first started flying aircraft with zero/zero bang seats in 2002. At least as far back as that we have been replacing pins on the taxi back. Indeed in certain aircraft we would fully unstrap and have the canopy open.
Should there be a fire the safest thing may be to shut the aircraft down and climb out.
You may now be horrified to hear this but consider how many uncontained engine fires there have been on the ground in this period (none that I am aware of). There have been several rapid egresses though where having the seat safe will have speeded (is this a word?!) up the process and made it more safe.
There have been procedural changes since Sean's accident but I won't go into them here. Please don't shoot the messenger.
BV
I am very curious to discover why crews were unstrapping during taxi back. During ALL of my time on ejection seats, 12 years, I never, ever, saw anyone unstrapping, or even attempting such before shutdown and as a refresher QFI I flew with a LOT of very experience students, from P/O to AM. ( Perhaps some easing of shoulder harnesses but nothing more.)
Similarly in my 25 years on civil jets never ever saw any pilot fully unstrap during taxi in.
Shoulder straps, perhaps but never a full unstrap.
What do you "unstrappers" now know that the rest of us did not ?