A 64-year-old man accidentally ejected himself from a fighter jet at 2,500 feet

Outside The Beltway
1

This was a bit of shared stupidity, some of it on the man himself, some on his buddies and a greater part on the French Air Force.

For the man himself, I can only assume he agreed to fly so that he wouldn’t be called a wuss. Seems the best explanation why he went along with this.

For the man’s buddies, did they even have a ******* clue???

As for the French Air Force, even the most cursory medical check would have indicated this man was unfit to fly. The man was wearing a watch which recorded his heart rate, showing that his heart was in full tachycardia PRIOR to boarding the aircraft.

So when the flight took off and started to climb, at 2500 ft, the man panicked and grabbed the nearest object, which sadly was the ejection seat button. His helmet was not fastened correctly and flew off during the ejection. But he parachuted down without serious injury.

Hopefully, next time they choose a slightly calmer activity. :smile:

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Geeze, poor guy.

Guess he didn’t want to disappoint his employees.

He’ll have that story to tell at cocktail hour and I’m sure it will never get old :laughing:

3

This is a sad story and I genuinely feel bad for the victim.

…and here is the BUT:

But this story is so rife with idiocy I couldn’t help but laugh. Again, I feel bad for the guy…but who puts grandpa in a fighter jet without ATLEAST saying “hey pops, no touchy the yellow handle” a few hundred times.

2 Likes
4

I feel like this has happened before. This chortle that came out of me felt familiar.

5

Put me in an Apache any day of the week, those seem fun, I’m not sure you could pay me to go for a joy ride in a fighter jet.

6

2500 feet seems fairly low … glad he lived to tell the tale

7

Holy crap…

raiden

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Some ejection seats have a zero/zero capability, meaning zero altitude and zero airspeed.
Martin Baker seats are used by a variety of countries.

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Something about it happening in France just makes it instantly funnier.

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They seem more complicated to fly, however. At least judging by the controls in comparison to most modern fighter aircraft.

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Holy ■■■■ that was a Rafale B trainer??

God this whole thing is stupid. Those planes are worth 105 million dollars a piece.

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Tried and true.

I think they’ve saved over 2,000 lives since they first came on the scene.

I wish I had that article saved. It was a short history of the Martin Baker seats.

The Russians have a similar ejection seat for their 70s and up vintage aircraft like the MiG-29. I think it’s the second most popular seat type after the Martin-Baker seats.