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Plane passenger accidentally activates ejector seat - and survives

A civilian passenger in an air force display plane accidentally activated the ejector seat while reaching for something to steady himself during a mid-air manoeuvre.

he novice flier instantly shot through the jet's perspex canopy and was blasted 100 metres into the sky by the rocket-powered emergency chair.

Experts said the man was lucky to escape unharmed following the bizarre incident, which happened on Wednesday in South Africa.

It is thought he activated the ejector seat after lurching forward during an aerobatic manoeuvre and accidentally pulling on the black and yellow emergency handle between his legs.

The lever is fitted as standard in the Pilatus PC-7 Mk II jets to allow pilots and their passengers to eject from the aircraft in the event of an emergency.

As soon as it was activated, the ejection sequence activated two rockets attached to the back of his chair.

The man, who has not been named, later floated back down to Earth on a parachute which opened automatically.

South African Airforce bosses scrambled a helicopter to pick up the passenger after the blunder near Langebaanweg airfield, 80 miles north of Cape Town.

The incident happened shortly after he took off for a joyride with an experienced pilot from South Africa's Silver Falcons air display team.

Nuh uh.

he pressed "launch" instead of "lunch"

Turboprop is more like it. Needless to say I am sure he needed to change his pants when the experience was over.

And so ends the South African "Take a civilian for a ride" program.

Is it correct that he was ejected through the canopy as reported or would the canopy have blown off as part of the ejection procedure?

This guy disagrees with you.

It's causing some hoohaa in the aviation fraternity. Everyone is making accusations left right and center, pilot did not brief, it was an unauthorized buddy flip etc etc

I think it was legit and the guy just grabbed the wrong handle when they did some aero's and the seat went bang!

It's because Charlie don't surf.

I thought I remember a Navy Tomcat having a similar incident many years ago. I read about it in one of my military non-fiction books..but just can't remember the details..

Ah..here it is:

http://www.f-14association.com/stories-07.htm

That was one lucky passenger.


Wheels

I think the PC-7 is one of those many fighters that have thin linear shape charge mounted in the top of the canopy: it cuts a hole in the canopy "glass" for the ejection, I think it's done for faster speed than ditching the entire canopy frame. This may be why the Harrier and Tornados have them: a faster eject due to being close to the ground.

Ps: I dont know if this turboprop has this type or not.

Adds new meaning to "let's see what all this baby can do".
Gald to to hear he came out well,,,, literally.

I've never heard of PC-7 being standard with rocket seats. The PC-9 has them.

Glad to learn the Pilatus PC-7 is not a helo.

Maybe this will teach pilots to give occasional passengers a proper briefing before flying.

He was thoroughly briefed, in the aircraft, in the simulator numerous times!!!

Anyway, it now seems that the pilot turned the aircraft inverted and the reflex action from the pax was to grab something to hold on to. So this was infact an inverted ejection with a good outcome. The seat itself is still MIA

There are also ejection seats that are fitted with "canopy breakers". These are hammer-like devices that flip up during the ejection sequence and shatter the canopy glass a microsecond before the seat fires through it. This is more of a precautionary device rather than the primary. It is intended to provide another means of egressing the aircraft in case the canopy fails to eject. The rest of the sequence is going to happen, and it would a lot more messy if the canopy did not eject and the seat fired into (or through) it without some form of canopy breaker.

-Skater

Also, some airplanes' ejection systems are MEANT to have you go through the canopy. For instance, the A-6 Intruder. The reason being that the A-6 canopy slides back to open, rather than opens like a clamshell. If the canopy opened like a clamshell, the airblast would help scoop the canopy up and out of the way for an ejection (also the pyrotechnics). But since it slides back, the canopy would not fly away and in fact, air that rushes into the open cockpit can form an eddy that may push the pilot/BN forward into the front windshield space, which would not be pretty getting crammed into there at that speed. So, in an A-6, you eject THROUGH the canopy (as depicted in the movie "Flight of the Intruder"), which, yes, can and does cause injury--but it's less injury than getting compacted into the space between the front windshield and top of the dashboard.

v6,
boNes