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French fighter jet joy ride goes très, très wrong (2020)
- ledauphin 5y agoread this far superior retelling: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a32131240/french-dassault-fighter-jet-joyride/ https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a32131240/french-dassault-...
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- curmudgeon22 5y agoAgreed, this version is better
- dang 5y agoOk, we've changed to that from https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/04/13/man-who-never-wanted-to-ride-in-fighter-jet-accidentally-ejects-himself/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/04/13/man-who-never-wanted-.... Thanks!
- daniel-cussen 5y agoThere's the story of the guy, he was in GQ I think, who was answering questions like "What is't like to:" "Get ejected from a fighter jet?" Scary shit, his flying machine was starting to do its real job which is of being a suicide machine, so he had to bail. The guy think he was an airman, became an inch shorter. EDIT: I would say instead of "real job" I would say "original job." Early aviation was full of deaths. First the guys jumping off the Eiffel tower with wings, splat. Then the famous German glider Otto Lilienthal, splat. Then more experiments, then eventually the Wright Brothers, who said "how do we fly without going splat?" Their invention was how to control the machine, wing warping. Others already could power it, just not control it. And they both lived in fear of splat, that's why they refused to fly on the same flying machine.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- H8crilA 5y agoA former US fighter pilot comments on this incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zIxqKwoHsM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zIxqKwoHsM Intro ends at 1:25
- sokoloff 5y agoThe top comment on that video is great.
- andrelaszlo 5y agoI don't get it?
- kube-system 5y agohttps://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Yeet https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Yeet
- andrelaszlo 5y agoOk, so I did get it. And French people say "le". I just didn't understand why it's considered so funny. The YouTube comments especially praise this as the funniest comment ever written but it's pretty obvious?
- kube-system 5y agoHumor is subjective and generational. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- H8crilA 4y agoEmphasis on generational :) PS. I am a millennial, and I absolutely love the zoomer humor. You guys are f* hilarious ^_^
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago
- mc4ndr3 5y agoAnd these people conduct wars.
- hef19898 5y agoNo, usually passengers on joy rides are not conducting combat operations.
- alduin32 5y agoSo wrong that the GoPro that the retiree was wearing was not even turned on, which is a shame, even if I doubt that the footage would have been released.
- Rapzid 5y agoIt's completely unsurprising though given everything else that wasn't in order lol. The ejection system wasn't fully connected!
- nickt 5y agoIt’s a Martin Baker seat. At least he’ll get a tie. https://martin-baker.com/ejection-tie-club/ https://martin-baker.com/ejection-tie-club/
- lastofthemojito 5y agoIrritatingly imprecise wording on that page: > Here at Martin-Baker, we run an exclusive club that unifies all pilots whose lives we’ve helped save: life membership of the Ejection Tie Club is confined solely to those who have emergency ejected from an aircraft using a Martin-Baker ejection seat, which has thereby saved their life. Does that mean you need to be a pilot to be a member of the club? Or does being a co-pilot or passenger qualify? And if you're testing the ejection seat (wittingly or unwittingly as in the case of this article) in a healthy airplane, such that it isn't a life-saving technique, do you still qualify?
- nraynaud 5y agono, but you have bail out volontarily and in a dangerous situation, the question has already been put to the manufacturer: no tie for the unluky retired.
- bombcar 5y agoIt’s kind of surprising how often people get a good idea for a gift and totally ignore the recipient’s cries of protest.
- teh_klev 5y agoWhen I crossed into my forties a couple of friends were insistent that I do "a big thing" of clay pigeon shooting, go karting, overnighting in a rented a cottage, get all the guys together etc etc. I point blank refused, I was going through a serious bout of panic/anxiety attacks at the time, and this was the last thing I needed. All I wanted was a few quiet drinks and a sit-in curry with some local pals. The amount of sulking that went on for weeks afterwards was quite something to behold.
- zh3 5y agoI know that feeling; people projecting what they like onto you, assuming therefore you will like it too and then getting upset when you don't. It's horrible because it feels like it's your problem - but it's really not.
- katbyte 5y agoIt’s weird too, because if they wanted to do all that why not just make that a separate plan/trip at a later date? There’s no reason to force it on someone when your free to just go do it as a group later
- ILMostro7 5y agoEasier to justify. Maybe even a little test or shooting off steam for their own life.
- imtringued 5y agoIt's their problem because there is absolutely nothing wrong with just asking. People want to surprise other people with nice gifts while simultaneously having no idea whether the recipient will want it.
- scarier 5y agoIt’s wild that the ejection sequence failed. Some two-seat aircraft have a “forward both, aft self” ejection mode for these types of events where you don’t trust the guy in the back to make good ejection decisions, and I originally assumed that was what happened here. Oops.
- everybodyknows 5y ago> the first ejection damaged the front seat, such that it didn't eject This as well -- fairly damning evidence of failures in design and/or manufacturing. Fortunate that the extemporaneous round of belated testing happened over friendly territory!
- TheFlash 5y agoThe post-incident report found a design flaw in the box that transmits the ejection signal from the back seat to the front seat, allowing it to get damaged. That and one loose screw.
- KennyBlanken 5y agoNo, a connector was not fully screwed in, which is why the seat didn't eject.
- smcl 5y agoEither way it sounds like it was good to discover this in a situation that didn't require ejection.
- smileysteve 5y agoIt's also practical; as the plane is moving forward, the aft seat needs a head start to reduce chances of mid air collision, or even burns.
- KennyBlanken 5y agoWhat's wild is that a connector not being fully screwed in by mistake prevented a very expensive jet full of a lot of fuel from lawn-darting (and potentially killing a lot of people. Crashing fighters seem to have a knack for ending up in dense residential housing areas.) The solo switch according to the youtube fighter pilot video is so that a solo pilot doesn't have to wait for the rear seat to fire if they activate an ejection.
- marcodiego 5y agoEjecting from a fighter plane is not only dangerous. It is relatively common that people who eject develop spinal injuries because of it.
- zabzonk 5y agoThere are other problems. My Dad had an engine fire in his RAF Vampire over East England, didn't have an ejector seat, and decided it would be better to belly-land the thing, which he did, succesfully, in a cabbage field. He got out of the Vampire and trudged over to an old yokel who had been sitting watching all this. Dad: Is there a phone around here? Yokel: You'm will be paying for all them cabbages?
- upofadown 5y agoA reaction like that implies that the farmer was screwed over in a previous incident or has heard of someone that was.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dev_tty01 5y agoOr, more likely, perhaps he just has a typically dry British sense of humor.
- rendall 5y agoHmm. Was the farmer compensated?
- zabzonk 5y agoNo idea. I'm not sure he should have been, but he very probably was - but my Dad was risking his life to protect the farmer, so Dad would not have paid for it. And as far as I know people were compensated for RAF crashes on their property - they certainly are now today, though RAF pilots do everything they can (up to their own deaths) to avoid militraliry accidents.
- Ecco 5y agoThe copy of this article is so good. The entire piece made me laugh so hard. Thanks for posting this!
- kergonath 5y agoIndeed. And then I felt bad for that old guy. But then it was really hard not to laugh again. Very glad nobody got seriously hurt.
- jacquesm 5y agoIf the 2nd seat had also ejected that Rafaele could have come down pretty much anywhere, it could have easily led to lives lost on the ground.
- bonestamp2 5y agoAgreed. The phrase, "al fresco fighter jet" is enough to consider reading this article if you haven't already.
- bennysomething 5y agoHad me in stitches that line :)
- id02009 5y agoThis one flew right above me, what does that mean? It's it something like driving open convertible is referred to as fresco? Where I come from fresco was just a brand of cheap wine that students drank when we dabbling in sophistication an inch above vodka and beer...
- benplumley 5y agoDining al fresco means sitting outdoors (literally "fresh").
- thombat 5y agoNormally used to mean an activity in the fresh air, generally with pleasant overtones. So dining "Al fresco" might be a meal on a terrace, or a picnic in a park. Flying al fresco could be a jolly ride in a biplane or a hot air balloon, glass of bubbly in hand, not so much the scream of air through your shattered canopy as you guide your crippled jet to the ground. That student plonk was aiming at debonair status; the favourite of my student days was a cooking wine with the grand title of Red Ridge Claret a little undermined by arriving in a 3L cardboard box, which stacked nicely on the mantelpiece as trophies of just how sophisticated we were.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- ChuckMcM 5y agoOuch! I'm glad the guy is okay, that could not have been "fun" given the description of the ejection. In Sunnyvale they used to train Orion P3 crews at Moffett field. Of course Sunnyvale and the surrounding towns had a few military contractors doing RADAR development who did not have many military targets to paint, so when a P3 flew over it made for a good "real life" test. On one such flight, the check pilot decided to "spice up" the newbie pilot's life as they returned to Moffett field by casually flicked on the RADAR threat detector. Sure enough, one of the contractor's search RADARs was 'pinging' them, but unexpectedly they were also testing a tracking RADAR which then subsequently got a good lock on the plane. That made the RADAR LOCK alarm go off in the cockpit and the trainee, as he was trained to do, immediately hit countermeasures without thinking. (That will save your life!) The plane was on final approach to the field, and when it activated countermeasures it consisted of both chaff and IR flares (bits of magnesium, lit and cast to the side to distract heat seekers) These mostly landed on the Sunnyvale golf course which is in the approach path. I used to play that course, and after this event there were a number of burn spots where the flares had landed and then burned out on the ground, and for probably two months there were bits of foil chaff that could be found in various nooks and crannies around the course!
- oconnor663 5y ago> immediately hit countermeasures without thinking Out of curiosity, if this is the doctrine, why doesn't the plane just fire countermeasures automatically?
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 5y agoSome systems do. I've worked on one.
- ceejayoz 5y agoIf you’re low on countermeasures you may want to dole them out more sparingly.
- dasudasu 5y ago
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mcculley 5y agoThis is a perfect example of how state militaries have more power than they are mature enough to handle. This is the likeliest explanation for The Great Filter, in my opinion. Civilizations develop power well beyond their wisdom and then snuff themselves out.
- woodruffw 5y agoI don’t understand the connection you’re making. This was a civilian who happened to work in the defense industry; we have no indication that he was otherwise familiar with the mechanical workings of the fighter jet he was put in. For all we know, he was the night janitor at a warehouse.
- codr7 5y agoI think the point was more about the entire chain of command that allowed themselves to be talked into allowing the flight to take place.
- mcculley 5y agoExactly. These organizations are entrusted with nuclear and biological weapons.
- lovehashbrowns 5y agoI feel like I want these people to know how to have fun rather than be robots. If someone is in charge of a nuclear weapon, I hope they know, truly, the value of life. I also want them fucking around and not using the weapons in the Middle East.
- mcculley 5y agoI also hope they know, truly, the value of life. I am not optimistic that they are wise enough to wield the power they have. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_nuclear_accidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_nuclear_accid...
- frontierkodiak 5y agoEzra Dyer is such a great car writer. I loved the Car & Drivers of yore, especially pre-2010ish. Ezra’s pieces are the only ones left that remind me of why I was so obsessed with hoarding and re-reading these mags as a kid. Even so, I miss how clever & irreverent the old C&D was.
- kingcharles 5y agoEzra's column was always the first thing I turned to when C&D turned up.
- huhtenberg 5y agoLol... somebody sure had a lot of fun writing this up :)
- jug 5y agoNow that's an article author that enjoys his job.
- jaxomlotus 5y agoI mean it sucks that this happened, but kudos to the writer, because this article is hilarious.
- sydthrowaway 5y agoI dont get it. Is the parachute deployed of the ejection too? How did the man survive
- imglorp 5y agoThe sequence is fully automatic: as soon as you pull the handle, the canopy pyros blow a hole, the straps pull the occupant's limbs in, the seat launches, separates from person, finally chute deploys. Your next inputs after pulling the handle are steering and landing the chute if you are conscious. By the way, the gentleman should be receiving a necktie from Martin Baker. https://ejectionsite.com/ https://ejectionsite.com/
- orbital-decay 5y agoYes, the parachute is in the ejection seat, it's deployed automatically later by necessity, as the pilot could be injured and/or unconscious.
- altgans 5y agoI think this is the official french military report on this: [1]. 1: https://omnirole-rafale.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Rapport-public-BEAD-2019-03-I.pdf https://omnirole-rafale.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Rappo...
- zoomablemind 5y agoWow, the ejection handle got broken off in the process!
- zepearl 5y agoInteresting & funny article, but but... my brain keeps focusing on the fact that the pilot's ejection seat did not work => is that usually supposed to happen? In this case the Rafale wasn't even doing anything fancy... .
- poof131 5y agoIn the F/A-18 we had a selector that you could set to "both" or "rear only" exactly for this type of scenario. Qualified NFO in the backseat, you want both, and I know people who's lives were saved crashing off the carrier. But for a ride along, "rear only" is definitely the correct setting. And I'm pretty sure this has happened before, remember stories from years ago.
- jll29 5y agoI'm so sorry for the retiree. I'm sure the colleagues meant well with this unusual present, and it probably was an admin effort to pull it off, but he was clearly uncomfortable to receive his gift. What hasn't been covered in the comments, to my surprise, is the aspect of peer pressure that made him accept the present. This wasn't a gift voucher for a flight in a hot air balloon, so colleagues should have planned for a "plan b" in case he wasn't going to have the flight for fear for his safety. Apparently, social pressure was exercised to coerce him - bad, shame on them!
- megous 5y agoI hope they'll fix the seats to not damage each other during ejection.
- sandworm101 5y agoThis is too fantastic. I am sure that it did happen, but the specifics here are exaggerated. For one, ejection seats are not "designed" to both eject. That is one of many options, one you do not set on passenger rides for specifically this scenario. And I am confused about the "negative .67g". Is that 0.67, whch is .33 below normal, or -0.67 which is basically like hanging upsidedown. Fighter pilots don't pull that much negative under normal circumstances, let alone with a civilian passenger. 0.67 would be scary for the uninitiated, but it isn't crazy. You can feel almost that in normal airline flying.
- throwaway892238 5y agoNever, ever, surprise me at the office.
- zoomablemind 5y agoNice read with a paced schadenfreude. I just wonder if it's luck or just some fog of the accident? The hero's harness was said to had been loosen - which is what eventually prompted the "grabbing of the handle" at negative g - in ejection scenario this is exactly opposite of the prescribed tightening of most slack in the harness in order to minimize the risk of hitting something on the way out of the cockpit. Also it must've been a hellishly painful yank ... Somehow it feels the story had too many "au contraire"s to it. Ground crew not tightening the straps to the guest? Someone had to arm that seat, yet not telling the guest about the purpose of the "striped loop"? The pilot "running away" from the jet after having just managed to land it literally in "hot seat"? My disbelief failed to suspend in this case, so to speak. Oh, well, good that all lived to tell the story!
- jacquesm 5y agoI suspect he just wanted to pull himself back 'down' against the seat. I guess if the seat comes up to meet you that's roughly the same effect.
- zoomablemind 5y agoStill, 35lb or so of pulling effort to activate the handle. It's like trying to drag a 4yo kid with both hands, except the handle is much thinner. It all does look like a bigger deal of the front seat misfire. Also from the investigation report (linked in reply by altgans) it seems that there was an issue with misinflation of the raft. The retiree turned to be like a true test pilot, hopefully making it better for others.
- peeters 5y ago> Still, 35lb or so of pulling effort to activate the handle. It's like trying to drag a 4yo kid with both hands, except the handle is much thinner. The negative g's are doing the pulling in this case though, all the passenger had to do is hang on. At -0.5 g a 160lb person will be "pulling" with 80lbs of force just by grabbing onto something.
- peignoir 5y agosounded like an episode of the office, thanks for the good laugh
- jacquesm 5y agoThe downsides of peer pressure. If you don't want to do a thing: don't. I've been called some pretty bad names by captains of industry for not wanting to partake in their chosen 'team building exercises', not a team player and so on. My body, my rules and if you want to bond over kayaking, parachute jumping, alcohol, drugs or bearing your heart out to perfect strangers that's perfectly ok with me. But I will join if and only if I feel like it. And any kind of pressure is going to turn a 'maybe no' into 'definitely no'. And that goes for backseat rides in fighter jets as well.
- aaron695 5y ago
- GekkePrutser 5y agoI remember this story when it came out originally. One thing I wonder: a 64-year old spine will not take kindly to the kind of pressures experienced in a fighter jet ejection. Even a trained fighter pilot in the prime of their life can sustain serious spinal compression injuries. I'm sure the passenger survived but I doubt he was as healthy as before :(
- pc86 5y agoI don't know if it's specific to Car and Drive but the writing in this article is terrible.
- kcarter80 5y agoYour opinion is almost universally disagreed upon by the comments in the article itself and here. Care to elaborate?
- Sebb767 5y agoPersonal preference, probably. I, for one, also found it a bit strange.
- pmcollins 5y agoterribly good
- khendron 5y agoNah, it's not terrible. It's just not very professional—probably intentionally for humorous purposes. It reads like a story being told over beers at the local pub.
- smabie 5y agoI actually really enjoyed it, makes the story very engrossing imo
- macdaknife 5y agoPremature ejectculation
- graupel 5y agoIn my 53 glorious minutes flying in an F16 with the USAF Thunderbirds, the only thing I kept thinking was KEEP MY HANDS UP AND DON'T GRAB THE BIG YELLOW EJECTION HANDLE BETWEEN MY LEGS, even at .99 mach pulling 9.2G.
- KennyBlanken 5y agoEdit: he apparently was not strapped in "well" (or at all) and when the pilot went negative G after a dramatic post-takeoff climb, the dude flew out of the seat and probably instinctively grabbed for something. https://youtu.be/-zIxqKwoHsM?t=427 https://youtu.be/-zIxqKwoHsM?t=427
- short_sells_poo 5y agoAre you a fighter pilot? I thought 9G is the upper limit of what even a seasoned fighter pilot can handle without passing out. I'd imagine most untrained individuals would pass out quite a bit below that.
- graupel 5y agoI was a guest riding in the back seat, definitely not a fighter pilot! And at 9.2 the pilot was fine but everything other than the center of my vision was grayed-out. I also had a 1G pressure suit on, that took the sensation down by about a point by forcing blood up out of my legs. But 9.2 sustained is way different than 9.2 for a few seconds as part of a max-g turn.
- short_sells_poo 4y agoVery interesting! It must have been an incredible experience. Sure, fighter pilots show a lot of bravado and have an air of devil may care attitude around them, but I'm convinced that the feeling of flying these incredible machines never gets old even after decades of experience.
- halotrope 5y agoThat was wonderfully written. Such a relief that right below the heading it was made clear that no one was harmed. The witty, yet restrained tone, combined with just the right amount of technical details is so refreshing to read. I wish there was more good writing in general.
- iJohnDoe 5y agoThat was actually written very funny!
- urban_winter 5y agoWhen I worked at British Aerospace Dunsfold in the late 80s/early 90s, it was a hard rule that nobody got to sit on an ejector seat unless that had been training in its use. I am surprised that it's not an absolutely universal rule. The consequences of inadvertently triggering an ejection while in the maintenance hanger are pretty ugly.
- jzer0cool 5y agoAny picture of the actual grab / ejection ? Curious from interface point of view. I read from article that it was stripped yellow, but anything else?
- maxnoe 5y agohttps://martin-baker.com/products/mk16-ejection-seat-for-rafale/ https://martin-baker.com/products/mk16-ejection-seat-for-raf...
- jzer0cool 5y agoThanks for the find. Based on various images it appears the same location. I wonder after many decades whether location has changed. Either way, I would say it was a big birthday surprise.
- xtiansimon 5y agoE-ticket ride
- npigrounet 5y ago
- Rastonbury 5y agoI wonder what his heart rate was when he ejected, that's like 12-14G apparently, insane
- slowhand09 5y agoLoved the article. Following it thru roads less traveled and stumbled on the golden nugget. John Stapp's Law (or Stapp's Ironic Paradox) states: "The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle."
- rekabis 5y agoTwo years after first reading this, I still find myself giggling uncontrollably over the exquisite prose, especially this line: > When either the fore or aft seat in a Rafale is triggered, the second one is supposed to follow automatically, on the theory that if one crew member makes an unscheduled departure, there's probably a good reason for the other to promptly join the exodus. So bone-fucking dry. Gods I love ridiculous things delivered in a no-shit-Sherlock manner like it’s as boring as the weather.