 An example of what happens when you pull the lever
|
It probably is best not to fiddle with switches or controls when riding in the back seat of an air force plane.
A man who failed to obey that principle found himself hurtling out of the cockpit, smashing through the Perspex canopy and into space after grabbing the black- and yellow-striped handle between his legs. He had inadvertently pulled the eject lever and found himself blasted 100 metres into the sky on his rocket-powered seat.
The South African air force has confirmed the incident that took place last Wednesday, when the passenger took off for a flight with an experienced pilot from South Africa’s Silver Falcons air display team. Investigators are assuming that the passenger tried to steady himself while the pilot was putting the Pilatus PC-7 Mk II through its paces by grabbing the eject lever.
Just wait until the SA Air Force sends him a bill for the canopy, the rocket, seat, parachute and the repairs needed to replace same in the plane. Better have a black American Express card.
#10 Seat should deploy chute for him, in case the “pilot” is injured or blacks out from the ejection. He may want to see a good chiropractor because the g-forces from the rocket are high.
“pilot was putting the Pilatus PC-7 Mk II through its paces”
I’ll try to link to picture of plane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Swissair_Pilatus_PC-7.jpg
Full story on the background of that picture
Viper007Bond…
Thanks for the link. That was fascinating. I still can’t figure out that crazy camo on that jet. And I was wondering what happened to the canopy in the photo. I assumed that it had been jettisoned in order to clear the way for the ejection.
That was a crazy stunt that pilot did… Mach 2 in open air. Who would have guessed it was capable?
My bad… it’s indeed a Super flanker
Tragically, it wasn’t Glen Beck…