A pensioner taking a joyride in a fighter jet – a special retirement gift from former work colleagues – accidentally grabbed the ejector handle to steady himself during the flight and was ejected from the aircraft at 500 km/h, an official report has found.
The 64-year-old Frenchman was unnerved when take-off forces in the two-seater Dassault Rafale B jet caused him to lift from his seat. He grabbed a nearby handle to steady himself. Unfortunately, it was the ejector handle and he was blasted out of the aircraft. He lived to tell the tale.
The official report into the incident indicates a series of errors. Organisers apparently overlooked medical advice that the passenger should not undergo the 3.7g of force the take-off generates. Seat straps were too loose, which is why the hapless amateur aviator felt he was floating upwards.
Even though his helmet flew off while being ejected, the seat’s parachute opened as designed and the Frenchman made a comparatively soft landing in a nearby field. He was whisked to hospital and was found to have suffered no serious injury.
Diagram from report shows how incident occurred
A report on the incident in the Guardian quoted investigators saying that the man had never expressed any desire to fly in a fighter jet. He had no previous military aviation experience. Instruments detected his heart was pounding at between 120 and 145 beats per minute as he sat in the cockpit behind the pilot while the jet zoomed along the runway and roared into the air at Saint-Dizier airbase in north-eastern France.
The man just before the flight. French Air Force
The incident happened in March 2019 but the report has just been released.
As the flight had been a special surprise gift from colleagues, the man felt he couldn’t refuse – though the surprise turned out to be more intense than anyone had anticipated.
Photo from report shows man in parachute after ejecting and plane (avion) in lower left corner
Written by Peter Needham
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