http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-li ... e-25667256

Gary

Sad, I hope they can bring his family some peace.

God that is terrible. What a crazy accident. I wasn't even aware this had happened. Here is a guy that can fly some of the most complex maneuvers known to flight at ridiculous heights and speeds a couple of feet away from 8 other planes and he gets killed by a messed up ejection seat on the ground on a parking ramp not even moving. Something obviously is not right there, its not like this guy had never been in a plane before and was sitting around pushing buttons and pulling on levers .... what a strange accident.

Hopefully they figure out how and why that can possibly happen, because if that can happen to a guy with that level of skill and experience then it is possible there is going to be pilots getting shot out of their hawks on parking ramps all over the UK. Very sad way to go for an awesome pilot.

The Hawk has been in service with the RAF since 1974 and, to my knowledge, I have never heard of this happening on a Hawk before - certainly not a fatal accident like this one, but I may be wrong.

Looks to have been a known problem

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-li ... e-25684968

This is indeed very sad. Back in 1975 I attended the Yeovilton Air Day in the UK as a spectator and was standing not far from an RAF Harrier that had just taxied in. There was a very loud bang and the seat plus the pilot were shot into the air unattached. The pilot was just climbing out of the cockpit and had triggered the seat and was killed on impact with the ground. I think the reason was that the safety pin had not been put back in the seat pan firing handle and his boot might have caught it. I immediately thought of that accident when I saw the footage of the Hawk on the TV. The image of the parked Hawk with the canopy shattered and the ejection rail extended upwards left me really cold. I have the same lasting memory of the Harrier at Yeovilton.

John

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-li ... e-25943211
Not a very good outcome for the RAF

And Marrtin-Baker


Gary

Wow! That is just wrong.

Sad. I vaguely remember something like this happening in the late '60s to a maintenance tech in a VF-101 F4 at Boca Chica (KNQX). The aircraft was in the hangar at the time. Next hangar over from ours - VX-1.

Certainly sounds like a series of errors and circumstances which really could have been avoided. Something way wrong with a seat design which allows the safety pin to be inserted whilst the handle is in an unsafe position.

Is that seat installed in the T-45 Goshawk also?

phantomfreak wrote:Is that seat installed in the T-45 Goshawk also?

The Bae Hawk uses the M.B. Mk 10 seat, whilst the T-45 uses the M.B. Mk 14, more commonly known as SJU17A and NACES (Navy Aircrew ... Ejection Seat)

OK, I've sat in that NACES seat many times, just wasn't sure of the designation.