French Fighter Jet Joy Ride Goes Très, Très Wrong

    • Moderator
    • 388 posts
    April 7, 2023 9:14 PM CDT

    This is a bit of old news, an event that took place in 2020.  Basically, the employees of a French defense industry wanted to gift the retiring employee with an amazing opportunity to take a ride in a Dassault fighter jet.  Needless to say, despite all of his instruction, this 64 year old managed to self-eject during midflight.  OMG!

    https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a32131240/french-dassault-fighter-jet-joyride/

    Apparently the quick and dirty safety briefing failed to properly emphasize the fact that the black-and-yellow striped loop in the middle of the seat, between his legs, was not a grab handle but the trigger for the ejection seat. The good doctor's g-load recommendations were surely exceeded as pyrotechnics blasted a hole in the canopy and rocket motors fired the seat and its terrified denizen out into the slipstream high above the French countryside.