Curious accidental ejection Rafale
Press release from MB...
The French BEA have publically released their accident report (A-2019-03-1) for the Rafale ejection that took place on 20 Mar ’19. The Rafale is equipped with the Martin-Baker MkF16F ejection seat supplied by SMB in France.
This report documents 3 key events;
1. The manual ejection of the rear seat passenger
2. The normal function of the rear ejection seat
3. The aircraft inter-seat system failing to fire the front seat
The inter-seat system that failed to initiate the front seat, mentioned in point 3, is not supplied by Martin-Baker or SMB France. We therefore cannot comment on why this failure occurred.
We at Martin-Baker were pleased to learn that both pilot and passenger walked away from this mishap.
The MkF16F ejection seat has a 100% success rate with the first ejection dating back to 2008.
This report documents 3 key events;
1. The manual ejection of the rear seat passenger
2. The normal function of the rear ejection seat
3. The aircraft inter-seat system failing to fire the front seat
The inter-seat system that failed to initiate the front seat, mentioned in point 3, is not supplied by Martin-Baker or SMB France. We therefore cannot comment on why this failure occurred.
We at Martin-Baker were pleased to learn that both pilot and passenger walked away from this mishap.
The MkF16F ejection seat has a 100% success rate with the first ejection dating back to 2008.
Avoid imitations
Join Date: Nov 2000
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So rather than retiring, he got fired?
Not the lone event of this type: Slovenia Air Force had same thing in a Pilatus-PC-9 in March 2008. A joy ridealong that ended differently than planned. MB worked as advertised, pilot brought home the PC-9 sans canopy.
