"The F-4 had a sort of potential nasty where if the rear seater pulled the handle just before the front seater the rear seater would be going up the rails just as the front seat canopy ejected.... the rear seater would quite possibly "collect" the canopy with probably fatal results. "

This was in fact a real nasty - XV397 on 1 June 1973. The navigator who had initiated ejection first was struck by the pilot's canopy. Thereafter, the RAF Phantom sop was for the pilot to announce the need for ejection by doing so.

I think that is a standard consequence of (military) aviation.

Stilton


I don't have any definitive information but a U2 (T-bird) crashed in September 2016 in California the instructor was killed even when video shot at the time showed two ejections and two parachutes, which appeared to have opened normally at a good height (i.e. well above the ground).


I can only speculate that the rear seater may have struck the front seater's canopy (or his seat) and being killed as a result. There's a thread on PPruNe with the photos I refer to. I have not seen any accident report published but I am hardly going to be on a distribution list to receive one!




MB

( F-4, front canopy etc)

Yes, I was aware that there had indeed been sadly been a real case on the RAF F-4 of a front canopy/rear seat occupant collision with fatal results.........

Certainly that was the standard brief for "time critical" ejections....as I recall it there was a bit of latitude if the problem was less time critical but yes, if in any doubt at all the front seater went first without any announcement.

Of course it didn't always quite work out as briefed... :oh:

Harley; agreed, no startling revalation or mystery to it.

Clever H Quinn !


Your 'summary' ignores the original question, if you re-read it you might get the point.


Thanks for the other informative replies.

Command eject
 

If there is a command eject option in a two seater and it's set to 'both' presumably whoever pulls first goes first????

Not so in the GR4. Whoever pulls the handle the back seater goes first (0.3 secs delay) and then the front seater (0.7 secs delay). And the trajectories are offset left and right.

Tandem Seat TA-4 Ejection Sequence Switch from NATOPS manual

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...m.gif~original

And the trajectories are offset left and right.

And if at low level, from experience, you land about 100m apart

Thanks for the information gentlemen

Glad you are able to tell the tale nipva....

TO