Frightened of flight: details of the passenger ejection from the Rafal fighter are disclosed

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A 64-year-old employee ejected from the French fighter Rafal, who, seeing them off to retirement, was given a surprise in the form of a flight on a military aircraft, writes the American magazine Popular Mechanics.

Imagine: you have been working for the French defense industry all your life, and when the time comes to retire, your colleagues do not give you something trivial, such as a wristwatch or a set of golf clubs, but something more memorable.



It is a pity that the 64-year-old Frenchman was not warned about the dangers that could await a person in the air. The French Bureau of Investigation BEA-E published evidence that the former employee not only became the passenger of a military fighter for the first time in his life, but also experienced an ejection seat.

"Rafale" rose from the Saint-Dizier airbase with a pensioner on board in full dress. Passenger's heart rate from excitement reached 140 beats per minute. In addition, he soon experienced an overload of about 3,7 G, as the aircraft began to climb sharply.


Our passenger panicked, which, however, is not surprising. He began to clutch at the black and yellow striped loop located on the seat between his legs. It was the lever of the catapult, but the French pensioner did not know this. After the catapult's trigger was pulled, Monsieur ascended into the sky.

In the end, an unsuccessful pensioner landed on the ground, having received minor injuries. Apparently, one of his cherished desires at that time was never to see his old colleagues again.
  • https://defense.gov/
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17 comments
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  1. GRF
    +1
    April 20 2020 10: 55
    The French, you see, decided to make a remake of the "peculiarities of the national hunt" ...

    I myself ... I myself ...

    :)
  2. +1
    April 20 2020 11: 40
    The canopy of the Rafal's cockpit is common, so the pilot of the fighter in this entertaining "flight for the old man" turned out to be a mega-lucky - he really "came off" 100%, showed his extreme fighting qualities and high professionalism. good ! winked
    1. The comment was deleted.
    2. +2
      April 20 2020 23: 50
      No, on double Rafals the flashlight is separate, but when any of the catapults is triggered, the second is activated automatically. In this case, the front catapult was defective, and the pilot simply had to land the plane. No heroism, he just had to fight for life. Well done, that was not taken aback and managed.
  3. -8
    April 20 2020 11: 45
    - It is not reported ... but how did the pilot behave after such a "passenger bailout" .. - did he manage to take the plane "to take off" ??? - In any case ... - the pilot had to demonstrate his skills ... - Apparently - this is what happened, and the plane survived ...
    - In general ... - this is another "involuntary advertisement" of reliability ... - for the French "Raphael" ...
    1. +1
      April 20 2020 12: 58
      hi Madame Gorenina91, you, apparently, are not "in the subject" ?! winked
      Because yesterday already "reported"that the French pilot exemplarily coped with the explosive depressurization of the cockpit and the sudden blow of a high-speed air stream!
      Despite received, with unexpected passenger bailout, stress and injury, Pilot (with a capital letter!) acted professionally - instantly took control of the emergency and retained control of the fighter, saved himself and the plane - he successfully landed at the airport!
      1. +2
        April 21 2020 00: 03
        There was no “explosive depressurization” there. On the pilot and on the passenger a special suit and helmet. At the time of the accident, the passenger was badly fastened. During takeoff, the pilot began to climb to 47 °, then he saw that the load in 4G was large, and reduced the angle, creating -0,6G. A poorly fastened “passenger” leaned forward and grabbed hold of the catapult lever in panic. Well, it crashed, losing, by the way, while still wearing a poorly fastened helmet with an oxygen mask). The fact that he was not particularly hurt is just a miracle. The pilot’s catapult didn’t work (they fire on Rafale synchronously), so the pilot just had to land the plane. Well done, that did it.
        1. +1
          April 21 2020 15: 51
          Strange your comments, "respected sofa expert" ??! wassat
          And I thought that shooting general (detachable joints in the glazing is not noticeable, and in fact only a pair of hinges on whole lamp. Purely according to engineering design logic, there are no two folding parts separately for the pilot and separately for the weapons operator. request ??!) of the lantern caused instant depressurization and high-altitude (even if the flight altitude was relatively low, but even in a much less high-rise building elevator, not to mention a high-speed ascent or descent in a mine cage to a depth of 1000 ÷ 1500 meters, many have unpleasant sensations in the ears, and here a sudden strong blow by a high-speed pressure of air on the head and body, and barotrauma to the ears, an explosive difference in pressure - stunning cotton turned out, many with such a sudden "street trick" - clapping palms-boats on the ears, even orientation to the time lose. winked !) decompression of the pilot’s body, because it wasn’t completely covered with a face mask, but ordinary if it with a fastened oxygen mask (you yourself write about a poorly fixed mask and a flying helmet of a passenger, and the pilot was hardly distinguished from him by high-altitude equipment and was in a special completely closed pressure helmet ?!)!
          Therefore, I still reasonably doubt this part of your comment! Yes

          But this is so, after all, I am only marginally, to the best of my aviation technical knowledge, engineering experience and everyday considerations, and you did study the Rafale in detail and (as I understood from the context), if you didn’t eject from a fighter, then you “felt” the difference between "explosive", instantaneous, depressurization (decompression) and gradual (with controlled, during a period of time sufficient for non-barotraumatic adaptation of the body, equalizing the pressure in the cabin with the outboard), and at the same time did not feel any difference ??! wink
          1. 0
            April 21 2020 17: 37
            About the "joints" (do you focus on photography in the article?) And everything else. I have no interest in arguing over all these details. This was not my goal initially, and did not want to offend anyone, sorry. Here is the link from where I got all this information, if there is interest, read.

            https://www.flugrevue.de/militaer/unfallbericht-veroeffentlicht-zivilist-schoss-sich-versehentlich-aus-fliegender-rafale/
            1. 0
              April 21 2020 18: 57
              hi Thank you for your reply, aka "Dear Sofa Expert"! good
          2. +2
            April 21 2020 21: 38
            I decided to answer you, because there was a time)
            In the video that I am sending you, at the 3rd minute and 6th second the lines are clearly visible along which the back cover of the lamp breaks (The lamp itself is solid).

            https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nHFjawAxhaA

            “Explosive” depressurization did not occur, as the plane still took off. A height of up to 3 kilometers is not dangerous when the cockpit is depressurized, but even if, then fighter pilots wear a special altitude-compensating suit (VKK) - individual equipment of the pilot to compensate for the effect of a sharp pressure drop in the aircraft cabin in the event of any abnormal or emergency situation, in particular to counter low barometric pressure in case of cabin depressurization at considerable heights. And also a helmet with an oxygen mask.
            On that uncle, the helmet was badly fastened, so at the time of the shooting, already being in the “free flight”, he lost it. Since the height was small, he did not experience oxygen starvation. In short, escaped with a slight startle) Everything was fastened normally on the pilot, so even at high altitude he would not have gotten “explosive”) Whether the pilot was in a closed or open helmet, it is not written there. Was there a pilot?))
            And generally speaking. All this was long ago (19.03.2019/XNUMX/XNUMX) and not true)
            1. 0
              April 21 2020 21: 51
              hi Very flattered by such attention! feel It is strange to whom my Plus sign prevented you ?! winked
              Thank you, aka "Dear Sofa Expert", for such a detailed explanation! good
              1. 0
                April 21 2020 22: 08
                Plus sign prevented, apparently, Mrs. Gorenina))
    2. +1
      April 20 2020 23: 51
      The defect of the front catapult somehow didn’t fit very well into the Rafale’s reliability concept))
  4. +3
    April 21 2020 07: 25
    Cool puffed dudes! I would like that!
    1. +1
      April 21 2020 15: 53
      One has only to buy a ticket for such an excursion. More expensive, of course, than in Turkey by parachute, but how many emotions !!!!! laughing
      1. 0
        April 21 2020 22: 15
        Only wear tight underpants. Your spine will crumble there. Then it will be easier to collect.))
      2. 0
        April 21 2020 22: 19
        Quote: AlexVas44
        One has only to buy a ticket for such an excursion. More expensive, of course, than in Turkey by parachute, but how many emotions !!!!! laughing

        hi And much more risk to health and life - compression fracture of the spine, for example, ....! Yes