According to a news release, a 64-year-old passenger on a guest ride in a French Rafale B fighter jet accidentally punched out into The Beyond.
From the article:
A privileged experience of a fly-along in a French Air Force Rafale B fighter jet went terribly wrong last month for one civilian who was shockingly ejected from the jet during a takeoff from Saint Dizier Air Base in northeastern France.
The unidentified 64-year-old passenger, who “does not belong to the [French] Ministry of Armed Forces,” sustained back injuries but was listed in stable condition after being taken to the hospital, according to Aerotime News Hub.
But aviation experts agree randomly firing passengers into the sky is typically not one of those capabilities. – Article
What can one say about such a boo-boo? It is, after all, the French. And really, the Rafale B from the photo accompanying the article almost looks like a single-seater, not a double cockpit.
AW Chute, he really did Chute the works and he chute N have hit the eject button. How was that Ex?
Oh, mon Dieu! Que vous etes un grand canard!
I “canard” read French Ex, but it looks ok to me.
Now that’s funny.
From the aricle that Ex-PH2 posted:
“His health condition is not a cause for concern,” Col. Cyrille Duvivier, spokesman for the French Air Force, told Aerotime News.”
😆
If the passenger was French, well, I always thought frogs leap or jump…
ribbet
Q-How deep is a frogs pond.
A-needeep needeep.
Jeff..Jeff..Jeff..
Ya killing me…LOL!
5th/77th FA is the King of Battle…
And our Jeff is The King of Puns..
Keep ’em coming!
He didn’t croak.
Plunk your magic twanger Froggie. Hia kids Hia.
Talk about your Double-E Ticket ride!
Seriously, he’s very lucky for only the back injuries, and that this didn’t crash the jet.
5/77, now you know why you don’t touch those yellow and black stripped handles and such.
He felt froggy so he jumped?
Hold my escargot and watch this!
If I can’t drive, I’m outta here!
Pepe’ Le Pew was in the cockpit?
I well remember AW1Ed offering me a ride in his Aerial Artillery Platform, and being admonished to NOT touch the yellow and black striped handle. He also told me not to pull the black and yellow striped handle. I’m just crazy, not stupid….and there is a difference.
I remember my in-cockpit briefing before my first flight in the ejection seat equipped OV-10 Bronco: “See that yellow handle in front of your seat between your knees? Don’t even touch that unless I tell you to pull it.” Thus, I have trouble understanding how this mishap occurred, since no non-military pilot goes for a ride without a briefing on ejection seat protocols and operation.
And yes, the yellow handle also had black stripes on it (for the fact sticklers among us). I suspect the coloration of ejection seat handles is a NATO standard, so one has to wonder what the Frog was thinking when he pulled it.
I’ll bet something he had on or was reaching for snagged a handle, and out he went. Completely unintentional. Those go-fasters are really tight, cockpit-wise.
That would be my guess also. Ejecting is a positive action. May have dropped something, trying to reach it and caught on the handle when straightening up.
Never sat in an ejection seat, but I’ve had a few trips in the back of a Huey. I keenly remember the first preflight safety briefing I ever got from the Helitack guys
Stay the fuck away from the tail,
Don’t approach the aircraft until we tell you,
Sit where we tell you and stay there,
Put on all the straps,
and finally,
Shut the fuck up and don’t touch *nothing.*
“And really, the Rafale B from the photo accompanying the article almost looks like a single-seater, not a double cockpit.”
The French Navy mostly operate single seat versions, the Air Force operate 2 seat B version. The first linked article does show a single seat, the second article has the 2 seat B variant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_Rafale#Variants
As someone with absolute shit eyesight,I am nearsighted, color blind and my eyes are too thin for Lasik, I’ve always been fascinated by aviation, and military aviation in particular. We(I) do covet the things we can never have.
The Air Force probably has a ribbon for that.
Must’ve panicked.
Mark Twain said man was created just below the angels and just above the French
I wonder if he Ejaculated on the Ejection.
Three great things in life are a good landing, a good orgasm and a good bowel movement.
The night carrier landing is one of the few opportunities in life where you get to experience all three at the same time.
Channeling my best Emily Latella “Whats all this I hear about flight stimulators and erection seats”
You usually only,”ejectulate”,if you go into a spin on deep…deep…deep penetration missions.
TINS:
Way back in the day, a Navy “Black Shoe” Surface Warfare officer was given a familiarization flight in the back seat of a Navy F-14D.
During the course of this F-14D familiarization flight, an inverted flight check was required prior to moving on to some more advanced tactical maneuvers.
(Now, as anyone who has flown inverted for any period of time knows, one has to really, and I mean really, cinch one’s seat harness down tightly, to the point of it almost being painful, in order for the straps to hold one firmly in the seat while flying inverted. Please keep this in mind as this famous Naval Aviation tale unfolds.)
The F-14D pilot confirmed that the GIB (Guy In Back) was ready for the inverted flight check. After hearing that the GIB was good to go, the pilot rolled the F-14D inverted and commenced the inverted flight check.
The pilot then heard a pop and the GIB was gone. The GIB had ejected.
The back-seat ejection sequence worked as advertised, and the GIB descended to earth under a good ‘chute.
The pilot now flew the F-14D convertible (the canopy was gone) back to home plate and landed without incident.
It was later determined that the “Black Shoe” GIB may have floated out of his seat a bit while the F-14D was flying inverted, and the GIB consequently reached down and grabbed the first thing that came to hand (the ejection handle between his legs) in an attempt to pull himself back into his seat.
Imagine the GIB’s surprise when *POP* out he went.
This tale is still legendary among Navy and Marine Corps Aviators of my vintage.
TINS.
Mick, a link to that occurrence:
http://www.vfp62.com/f14_rio.html
From that article: “…if the command-eject lever wasn’t already in “pilot,” as briefed, I also would have been ejected.”
I just learned something new about Tomcats. I didn’t know they had a command-eject selection. I always ASS-U-ME’d that if one ejection seat was triggered, then the other was going too.
I’m reminded of the episode of “JAG” when Admiral Chegwidden was flying with Harm and accidentally punched himself out while trying to pass gas in his flight suit.
Talk about a real “blast.”
One of the less charming flight sims was/is the high altitude pressure chamber, where half a dozen or so of us would enter, find a seat, and don an O2 mask. The pressure was then reduced to a simulated altitude of 30K feet, as evidenced by a latex glove tied off on the overhead. It was limp upon entering, but archived full balloon at altitude.
Then we, the trainees removed the O2 masks and were to play silly games like patty-cake and counting backwards from 999 by threes (not really fair, a lot of pilots had problems with this at 0’AGL), to better recognize the onset and effects of hypoxia.
There was another physiological effect. Remember the glove? All the gases in our body cavities expanded, too, and there are only two vents available.
Training complete, O2 masks back on and the “descent” to ambient pressure, masks off.
That trainer smelled like a shit house in the August sun, enabling an emergency egress training evolution. Ahhh, the things Recruiters never mention…
Maybe Monsieur Passenger just wanted a unique log book entry.
But does an ejection count as a free fall?
Or more like static line?
Ex-PH2:
Good image of a Rafael B fighter.
It is indeed a two seat – Pilot-RIO (or whatever the French call the second guy) configuration.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Rafale_-_RIAT_2009_%283751416421%29.jpg
I recall a story in a book of mine about a Marine who was in Air Wing. Robert Duvall was doing research for the part of The Great Santini and the Corps was quite happy to give him a tour and seat him in a cockpit. The Marine was the one on duty when he came in.
He sat Robert in the plane and the man’s hands reached for the ejection lever by accident. The Marine quickly stopped him, causing the two Public Affairs Officers to start screaming at him to not touch him and back away.
Robert’s response was this: “Gentlemen! This Marine stopped me from doing something stupid and hurting us both. Please step back and let him do his job.” Then he looked over and said “Sorry about that. Where can I put my hands?”
Do I remember correctly that US DoD (or is it just AF or just Navy) only allows three ejections per individual and then that individual is grounded, permanently?