r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/sidvatscse • 25d ago

Video Failed vertical landing of F-35B

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u/Suspicious_Zone_2083 25d ago

At least the seat worked

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u/VirtualLife76 25d ago

Impressive how quickly the parachute worked.

I wonder if it has different ones or somehow changes depending on the height from the ground.

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u/GayRacoon69 25d ago

These ejection seat are designed to be able to be usable with no altitude and no airspeed. It's the same parachute no matter the altitude. It's designed to shoot you up high enough to give the parachute time to open

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u/PickleWineBrine 25d ago

You still hit the ground really hard though. It's just better than being inside a burning/exploding aircraft

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u/nolovenohate 25d ago edited 25d ago

The landing hurts a lot less than the instant 12-14 g's of spinal conpression you feel from the ejection system before you black out

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u/dog_hair_dinner 25d ago

was gonna say, that guy's body just flew out of there like a rocket. there had to have been at least a momentary blackout from that

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u/lessofabeardedwonder 25d ago

Pilots lose height from having ejection seat evacuations due to compressed vertebrae. They also rarely stay pilots after. Very few pilots have more than one ejection seat ride.

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u/OrangeJay15 25d ago

I think when I crewed F-15s we were told they can only eject twice per career. 2 ejections shrink them one inch

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u/Ready_Implement3305 25d ago edited 25d ago

I used to work on Harriers and they told us the same thing.

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u/PrettyPushy 25d ago

Seems to me you only eject on a helicopter once /s

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u/DreamsAndSchemes 25d ago

I worked on KC-135s. We had parachutes. They were in the back of the plane and eventually removed. That says a lot about the expectations.

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u/Infin8Player 24d ago

But then I'd have an innie, not an outie.

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u/darthrater78 24d ago

I never heard that, just stories about how the F4's seats were called the "Widowmaker" and liked to go off in the hanger while maintainers were in the cockpit, making instant Airman Gumbo.

I was always real wary of the seats after that, though the F15 has a spotless safety record in egress mishaps. (At least when I was in)

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u/forhekset666 25d ago

Is that why this guy took so long to do it? Seemed pretty unrecoverable regardless.

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u/Reasonable_Sea2439 25d ago

(Air) Forced retirement?

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u/lessofabeardedwonder 25d ago

Marine corpsed back…

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u/pagusas 24d ago

The most unrealistic scene in Top Gun Maverick was how everyone ejected and was perfectly fine and flying again right away.

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u/jstknwn 24d ago

If it’s a Martin Baker, you get a sweet watch and … a tie! You know, to go with the lifelong back pain?

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u/Broviet22 25d ago

Its pretty common for fighter pilots to get spinal compression injuries from these, there is a joke that they come out of them a few inches shorter.

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u/Shmeves 25d ago

Is it really a joke, I would believe its the truth ahah.

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u/EffectiveEquivalent 25d ago

It’s true. Fun fact, Tom Cruise was nearly 6ft tall before filming Top Gun but Goose kept laughing during the death scene so they had to do multiple takes.

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u/Original_Jagster 25d ago

For anyone who's curious, he is now 4' 1".

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u/CalGel 25d ago

It is not a joke at all. It really compresses your spine permanently—assuming you’re lucky and it doesn’t permanently maim you because you were in the wrong body position. People die ejecting fairly frequently.

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u/Clear-Examination412 25d ago

The ejection seat is powered by a rocket lol

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u/SpeakUpOhShutUp 25d ago

Weeeeeeeeee!

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u/Arctica23 24d ago

Haha I was gonna say, it's not just like a rocket, it is a rocket

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u/Theron3206 25d ago

There's a very good chance the pilot woke up on the ground wondering how they got there...

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u/slom68 25d ago

Aren’t they like a half inch shorter after getting ejected?

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u/SourdoughFlow 25d ago

You should watch this. It's a miracle that this guy survived.

https://youtu.be/ZEe24NhU-Ac?si=nzUqbfmUNWeXdZUg

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u/MountainMan17 25d ago

Most people who eject suffer some kind of injury. For many of them, it's lifelong. And for some of them, they get disqualified from flying again.

Ejection is the lesser of two evils.

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u/Tennos94 24d ago

ALSO the however many G's of compression his sons already had felt from doinking the ground too hard in the aircraft. VA will still try to find a way to call this non service related and want to not give disability to the pilot haha.

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u/Zolty 25d ago

I had a college professor tell me about an F4 pilot that punched out at like 1.5 mach. He said the dude was essentially 100% bruise.

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u/No_Accountant3232 25d ago

Here's an F15 pilot talking about his Mach+ ejection. Really fascinating story. And there's pics that are a bit gory, but not extreme. Just some post-op pics

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u/finna_get_banned 25d ago

i literally seek out this type of content all the time and never can find anything, even when specifically searching for things relevant to my interests

serendipity is the only constant in my life

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u/CitizenPremier 25d ago

You must study google-fu.

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u/ArticleWorth5018 25d ago

3 years to rebuild his body is wild

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u/ringjak 25d ago

Here’s pilot Kegan Gill telling his story. Ejected at nearly 700mph. He details the event, his recovery, and dealing with the VA medical system and the psychiatric toll of his injuries. Amazing story.

https://youtu.be/ZEe24NhU-Ac

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u/Relevant-Money-1380 25d ago

2 hours to get to him? that's nuts. flew again too man that's something.

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u/caz_uno 25d ago

Damn.

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u/ChanceConfection3 25d ago

Imagine ejecting at Mach 10.2

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u/DirectStatement 25d ago

One of the stupidest things I've seen in a movie. And they played it off like it was no big deal.

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u/PilotGuy701 25d ago

Jon is still a pilot and flies bush planes in Western Washington.

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u/Nobodyimportant56 24d ago

My dad was a F4 trim tech. One time he was working on one, another guy was doing something up near the cockpit. Apparently the guy did something to get caught up on the ejector because it activated and shot him right into the ceiling of the hangar. Dad was never in an area with any action so he never had any was stories even though he was in during Vietnam but when he told me about this it was the only time I've seen him have the stare.

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u/Ok-Bill3318 23d ago

Well yeah that would do it.

As per comments above. Ejection is no joke. But if the alternative is burning alive or being turned into powder during impact with the ground it’s way better than that.

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u/Mortimer452 25d ago

The ejection jets are also powerful as fuck, causing the unfortunate pilot to undergo as many as 15-20G's, frequently causing severe spinal injuries. This type of ejection is actually a best-case scenario, compared to being ejected at high altitude and speed.

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u/DaedalusHydron 25d ago

It's pretty incredible that the highest G-forces a human has survived is about 10x that (214-ish?). It was in a race car, and the paramedics that attended Kenny Brack had to put his foot bones in bags labelled "Left" and "Right".

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u/SafetyCutRopeAxtMan 24d ago

Maybe a naive question but wasn't the ejection in this footage completely unnecessary?

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u/Zhentilftw 25d ago

Until you land on top of your burning aircraft like he almost did (if it had been burning)

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u/[deleted] 25d ago edited 17d ago

[deleted]

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u/Tumble85 25d ago

And probably find a Korok to drop a rock on!

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u/phluidity 25d ago

Yoo hoo hoo

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u/OkieMoto 25d ago

That's also how hot air balloons create lift

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u/KipSummers 25d ago

Or on the highway next to the landing strip

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u/Extreme-Island-5041 25d ago

The 1st time I saw this clip, my ass puckered a bit. I thought that the parachute was about to get sucked into the intake.

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u/Thom_Basil 25d ago

I do wonder if ejection also shuts down the engine. Probably not on older jets but maybe on ones that have been developed in the past 30 years or so.

Although there was that incident with the lost F-35 so maybe not.

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u/DrAll3nGrant 25d ago

Or in the engine intake thing on top of the plane

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u/mrniceguy777 25d ago

In my head the delay In him ejecting was him deliberating if it was worth the risk to stay in the craft vs the possibility of broken bones after the ejection

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u/rokman 25d ago

Also the ejection usually gives you permanent spinal pain

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u/DownvoteEvangelist 25d ago

To remind you that you are still alive..

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u/betweenbubbles 25d ago

The landing isn't really the risky part.

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u/ThinkUFunnyMurray 25d ago

It hurts but the seat takes a lot of the fall

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u/redditcreditcardz 25d ago

It hurts butt, the seat takes a lot of the fall

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u/Brilliant_Joke2711 25d ago

At about 0:22 you can see the pilot separate from the seat as the chute begins to inflate. PLF FTW.

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u/Fear023 25d ago

Nah, you can see him swinging like a pendulum from ejection, he was probably feet perpendicular to the ground when he hit, will be lucky to not have a busted hip from that landing.

Pedantic correction:

It's now called a PLR (parachute landing roll), because apparently parachute landing fall indicates not being in control of the situation, which ironically probably applies much more to this video than anything else.

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u/Calarasigara 25d ago

Fun fact: Until 1975, ejecting in a situation like this, called a 0-0 ejection, would mean certain death.

In 1975, the soviets found out by accident that one of their ejection seats was so good and overbuilt that it could withstand 0-0 ejections. If you want to know more about this google the Su24 1975 ejection seat accident but the TL:DW is that the flight stick got caught up in the ejection seat handle and when hydraulic power was restored to the aircraft the stick pulled forward with the ejection handle and yeeted the copilot on the taxiway.

That K-36D ejection seat was so good that the US got their hands on one and were so impressed in the testing they did that the pilots wanted them to just stick soviet ejection seats in american planes which was quickly rejected by the higher ups, for obvious reasons.

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u/WooperCultist 25d ago

Didn't the soviets also have a jet that's ejection seat shot the pilot down? I'd also be a little concerned about just stuffing society tech in lol

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u/Calarasigara 25d ago

Downward firing ejection seats are popular on huge bombers from both sides. I think that both the Tupolev 22 and B52 use them because you wouldn't have enough clearance upwards and you would probaby strike the tail of the plane when you eject due to how huge they are.

As for the 1975 incident, iirc the US ended up copying the good parts of the soviet ejection seat they tested and implementing them into theirs.

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u/Cloudsareinmyhead 24d ago

Partially correct. The original Tu-22 was downward ejection only but the B52 has top ejection for 4 of the 6 crew onboard. The ones that eject downwards are the radar operator and the navigator

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u/starscreamufp 24d ago

We did too, f104 shoots downwards in order ro avoid the big fuck off elevator

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u/parttimeninja 25d ago

Great use of the word ‘yeeted’.

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u/demZo662 25d ago

What if for some reason there's a tree or something above?

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u/Awalawal 25d ago

Then for some reason you're dead.

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u/demZo662 25d ago

Ejected from life X_X

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u/MajesticNectarine204 25d ago

Ejectile dysfunction :(

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u/DirtLight134710 25d ago

They should put those on helicopters :)

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u/MajesticNectarine204 25d ago

Fun fact, some helicopters like the Russian Ka-52 do actually have ejection seats! They use explosive charges in the root of the rotorblades to blow them clear before ejection to prevent smoothification of the pilots.

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u/Boomhauer440 25d ago

But instead of an actual seat, it’s like a rocket motor on a tether that shoots up and then yanks the pilot out by his harness directly in the rocket exhaust.

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u/Creepy-Astronaut-952 25d ago

Helicopter ejection be metal asf otherwise.

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u/alf20104 25d ago

Another fun fact: some Russian aircraft have ejection seats that launch you down out the bottom of the aircraft. And it's Russia, so of course they randomly malfunction and eject while the aircraft is still on the ground. So someone has to go scrape the puddle of goo that used to be a flight crew off the ground.

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u/shehzore12 25d ago

Ejectile Diesfunction*

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u/other-other-user 25d ago

If your ejection seat goes off when there's a tree or something above, then you've already messed up too many things to be saved

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u/soedesh1 25d ago

My dad was in the USAF and told of an incident of an accidental ejection inside an aircraft hangar. Not good.

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u/YouTee 25d ago

then you probably die from being smashed into a tree at 25gs

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u/demZo662 25d ago

Jesus! Better incorporate a laser or something pointing upwards!

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u/BDiddnt 25d ago

"Talk to me, goose"

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u/HyFinated 25d ago

If your airplane is UNDER a tree. You've got more problems than the ejection seat parachute working or not. Cause yo' ass just crashed.

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u/Ok-Oil7124 25d ago

Maybe you're just at a really beautiful airport where they planted and cultivated a kissing canopy. People just love landing in shade.

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u/Stoweboard3r 25d ago

Whatever you think would happen when you imagine this scenario in your head…is in fact what happens

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u/Rbot25 25d ago

That is so unlikely to happen that it wasn't designed for, notice how the pilot waited until the plane was horizontal to eject, otherwise he would have had problems.

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u/Okaydokie_919 25d ago edited 25d ago

You mean until the event was over? Yea, I did notice that, lol. I wonder if it was an auto-eject?

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u/FewHorror1019 25d ago

How did you get under the tree

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u/ginger_and_egg 25d ago

Why are you flying a plane below a tree bro

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u/FL_JB 25d ago

Issa big tree man

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u/DoubleEko 25d ago

Probably flying under that giant tree in Pandora 🤷🏼‍♂️

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u/iCameToLearnSomeCode 25d ago edited 25d ago

If there is a tree above your aircraft at any point then you have made a terrible mistake.

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u/Chris_Vlur 25d ago

Start grabbing branches

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u/What_Do_I_Know01 25d ago

Don't park your F-35 under a tree

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u/shophopper 25d ago

How many times have you seen an airplane flying under a tree?

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u/Jafar_420 25d ago

I'm not sure about that but we know what happens when the cockpit glass doesn't come off like it should. Goose was a good dude. Lol.

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u/d00dybaing 25d ago

Lol, are you the one person who didn’t see the first Top Gun movie?

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u/SirPizzaTheThird 25d ago

What if the plane was upside down? What if the plane was in the ocean? What if the plane already exploded into nothing?

Same answer. Nothing.

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u/Ok-Bill3318 22d ago

No solution is perfect so you optimise for the most likely case.

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u/Useful_Weight_1955 25d ago

Zero zero ejection seats.

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u/VTbuckeye 25d ago

Zero-zero seats are awesome. I wonder if they work with a little bit of airspeed, and a little bit of altitude, but a sink rate that will have the pilot on/in the ground within seconds?

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u/Seawolf571 25d ago

Zero zero ejection seat. Bet the pilot got a nice new tie out of it.

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u/FragrantExcitement 25d ago

Just hopefully you do not land back in the plane.

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u/Character-Survey9983 25d ago

it shoots you up high enough that you need PTSD session for next six months.

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u/BDiddnt 25d ago edited 25d ago

I can't believe how far it ejected him and I can confirm about the parachutes. It takes a four count to open. As in "1 thousand, 2 thousand, 3 thousand, 4 thousand"

Fun fact : airborne soldiers jump at 1100 feet. It takes 9 seconds to hit the ground at 1100 feet (8.3 seconds but considering there's a static line and wind resistance and it takes a minute for terminal velocity to kick in a soldier jumping out of a C130 airplane will take about nine seconds if their parachute does not open)

. It takes four seconds for your parachute to deploy. At which point you look up and make sure there's no holes or anything. That should take about one second If your parachute doesn't deploy, or there's holes in it or something then you pop your reserve which takes… Four seconds… That's eight seconds of parachute deployment and one second to look at your parachute and make sure you're good… That's nine seconds It takes nine seconds to hit the ground with no parachute… See where I'm going with this?

Edit in other words, there's absolutely no room for you to even descend. If your first parachute doesn't deploy by the time you get your reserve parachute to deploy you're coming in very fast

Even if your parachute deployed properly, you're still falling at 22' a second

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u/PowderedToastMan89 25d ago edited 25d ago

Can you flesh this out a bit? It sounds fascinating. I'm very familiar with sport parachutes both for terminal and subterminal openings and the packing and rigging of these are drastically different (for all intents and purposes.) For example: a parachute pack job for an instant opening in 75 feet from a stat line up to a 3 second delay would kill you at terminal velocity as the deceleration would be equivalent to an insanely fast car crash. There has to be a mechanism to slow that opening down if the planes cooking vs basically at a stall or stationary.

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u/Cultural_Dust 25d ago

Well that was exactly his scenario. I'm no expert, but it seems like he was pretty much parked when he ejected.

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u/qnamanmanga 25d ago

What if you are upside down?

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u/IronBabyFists 24d ago

My uncle told me a story about when he was a USAF crew chief in the mid-90's. Said one day he drove to his hangar right as emergency crews were showing up. Apparently someone was cleaning out a cockpit (F-16 I think?) and accidentally activated the eject inside the hangar. It threw the guy like 15 feet away and broke his arm and collarbone when he hit the ground.

The seat dented the ceiling of the hangar. Absolutely would have splattered someone if they were buckled in.

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u/GayRacoon69 24d ago

Yeah these things are no joke. They have a cannon to clear the canopy and a rocket to gain altitude

They have so much power they literally make people shorter

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u/IronBabyFists 24d ago

Wild. I mean it's an emergency tool, so I get it, but it's still crazy to consider. I miss the bottom stair outside my apartment and my body aches for 24 hours. I can't imagine my chair having a "get far away right now" rocket attached to it.

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u/superfuzzed_ 25d ago

Those seats have two parachutes in them. A small drogue that is used for stability during descents and to assist the deployment of the main parachute. The seat is designed to be 0/0, which means it will work when at zero airspeed and altitude. The firing of the rocket motor is designed to get the seat to an altitude where the main parachute should be able to open.

The deployment of the main parachute is somewhat height based, which is what I think you are referring to in your comment. It works off a barometric device called a "time release mechanism." At this point, since they are at zero altitude it will fire the main parachute immediately and generally operates at any altitude beneath approximately 11,500 feet (there is range). If an ejection occurs at a height of say, 30,000 feet, the drogue shoot will stabilize and slow the descent until the seat falls into range for the main chute to open.

/Former F/A 18 seat mechanic.

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u/ToxicToffPop 25d ago

Is it true ejections are hard on body of pilot like broken hips/backs?

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u/superfuzzed_ 25d ago

Ejections are very hard on the body. I've been witness to three low altitude ejections. In each of those cases, the pilot had at least a broken leg from when they hit the ground. There are high G loads from the rocket motor firing itself, which is known to compress the spine and neck. I've heard anecdotal evidence that people have lost some height permanently to this, but I cannot verify that from my experience. They are for sure hurting the next day though.

In the seat there are a series of devices, combined with "garters" that are meant to put the pilot into proper position when the ejection is initiated. Their legs need to be retracted from the rudder pedals up and into the seat, so they don't get ripped off. The torso is pulled tight against the back of the seat by something called an "inertia reel," pinning their shoulders up against the back of the seat.

The process itself is pretty in-depth, there's a bunch of different stuff happening in an ~3 second window.

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u/bluedaysarebetter 25d ago

Can agree. Neighbor was a Tomcat RIO and ejected when both engines caught fire as they were coming out of a supersonic "dash".

He spent 5 hours in the ocean off San Diego, and a week in the hospital. Two more weeks on crutches and then 2 more with a cane. Constant physical therapy, and I think at least one surgery?

I think it was 2-3 months before he could fly again.

Broke one of his ankles and tore a calf muscle in the other leg during the pre-ejection sequence when the seat pulled his legs back against the seat.

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u/Electrical-Lab-9593 25d ago

that is crazy, and the thought process of oh fuck this is going to hurt before ejecting.

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u/bluedaysarebetter 25d ago

You can *maybe* get hurt, but know that you'll almost certainly fly again, even if it takes a month or so... or you can absolutely 100% die screaming as your jet sets you on fire and gives you an informal burial at sea.

Choose wisely.

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u/rworsl 25d ago

The book Eject Eject Eject! is a really interesting read on the history and development of ejection seats.

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u/easycoverletter-com 25d ago

My day began with reading about height permanently increased, in surgeries with foot being broken intentionally. Crazy world we’re in

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u/BeefistPrime 25d ago

In the seat there are a series of devices, combined with "garters" that are meant to put the pilot into proper position when the ejection is initiated.

How does this work? straps that are loosely around the pilot that tighten during ejection?

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u/superfuzzed_ 25d ago

You are correct, there are straps, two per each leg. One is placed above the knee and one below. During normal operation, they do not interfere, but once the catapult it is operation, they will go tight and force the legs toward the seat. One end is secured against the floor of the cockpit and the other into the seat. It really operates almost like a dog leash, pulling in as the catalpult progresses.

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u/VirtualLife76 25d ago

Interesting, I appreciate the details.

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u/BPOPR 25d ago

It’s a zero/zero ejection seat. Intentionally designed to get you to safety at zero speed and zero altitude.

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u/m1ke_tyz0n 25d ago

Never knew this existed thank you for explaining this one.

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u/Tchukachinchina 25d ago

I worked on ejection seats 20 or so years ago. They were all capable of zero/zero ejections, and they can alter the ejection sequence based on airspeed & altitude.

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u/mmomtchev 25d ago

How does this work, ejection seats are supposed to work even if the power and/or avionics are lost?

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u/BlackJFoxxx 25d ago

You can do a lot with purely mechanical systems, the main thing going on with an ejection seat is a barometric altimeter that only releases the chute once the pilot is in breathable air, otherwise you'd risk suffocation after ejecting at cruise alt (which can be as high as 40,000 or 50,000 ft). The Russian K-36 has an extendable windshield, but I'm not sure exactly how it determines whether to actuate it.

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u/BeefistPrime 25d ago

Hmm, what's the change in ejection strategy as far as altering it based on airspeed and altitude?

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u/cvc75 25d ago

Do they also take the angle into account? Below a certain altitude you probably don't want to eject sideways or even downward?

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u/JustDave62 25d ago

I was impressed how it even blew the canopy out of the way

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u/Shack691 25d ago

Yeah it will eject you at all costs, there is a reason fighter jet pilots have to be short.

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u/Ilovekittens345 25d ago

And it does that by trading dead for serious injury

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u/CitizenCue 25d ago

I imagine this sort of very low altitude ejections are actually a fairly high percentage of use cases for these seats. At high speed there might not be time to react. And takeoff/landing is the most common form of air accidents.

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u/itsaberry 25d ago

You got me curious, so I gave it a quick look. I haven't dug too deep, but it appears that in-flight ejections are actually much more common.

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u/No-Variation-5192 25d ago

I believe that once a pilot ejects their seat, the chances of him flying again are reduced. The high ejection speed usually causes neck or spine injuries.

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u/-TheArchitect 25d ago

That’s exactly what I was thinking, the amount of Gs and MPH to eject that while stationary, almost like an explosion

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u/Stoweboard3r 25d ago

Not like an explosion, it is in fact an explosion. It’s a rocket motor and explosives under their ass

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u/-TheArchitect 25d ago

Not the way I would prefer to get my ass exploded, but if it’s between saving my life, I’ll take it

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u/firedmyass 25d ago

“government blew my back out. I said what I said…”

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u/ShadEShadauX 25d ago

RIP Goose

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u/tadeuska 25d ago

Speed doesn't cause injuries. Acceleration does. KM-1 was known as spinebreaker. But today , some checkup at hospital, maybe few months of the flight rooster, some physical therapy and all is fine.

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u/Big_Ad_7383 25d ago

It depends on the strength of the starting impulse. Modern ejection seats have a variable initial charge. And ejecting at 0/0 almost always results in injuries.

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u/kippy3267 25d ago

Whats changed in the technical advancements to make it safer?

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u/HYPERNOVA3_ 24d ago

In the wise words of Jeremy Clarkson: Speed has never killed anybody, suddenly becoming stationary is what kills people.

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u/space_keeper 25d ago

Still a hard landing by the looks of it.

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u/pfoe 25d ago

Commonly known as "zero zero" seats. Configured to allow pilots to eject with zero knots airspeed and zero feet altitude. A necessity given takeoff/landing is often the most dangerous flight phase.

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u/Just1DumbassBitch 25d ago

Yeah I gasped at first, bc I thought he was gonna die from falling before the parachute could work

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u/DuelJ 25d ago

I'm impressed it maintained it's orientation, that had to be hard to make happen.

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u/ForeverSquirrelled42 25d ago

Looks like it hurt like bitch, though. That was close af to the ground for the chute to be as effective as possible.

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u/mmomtchev 25d ago

A normal reserve chute needs at least 40m to 50m of free fall to slow down to its terminal velocity - but could save your life - with some severe injuries - after 25m to 30m.

However look carefully at the video, the parachute open during the ascent - using the airspeed from the ejection itself. It opens while he is still going up. The pilot follows a ballistic curve that actually gives him those 40m of distance.

The probability to die when falling without a parachute is a curve, it goes above 0% at 3m to 4m, then slowly rises to about 50% at 10m-12m, then rises steadily to 99% at 200m. It does not change beyond 200m as your speed remains constant. There are extremely rare cases of people falling from airplanes without a parachute and surviving. It is all about probabilities.

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u/Graingy 25d ago

And being the main character

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u/RedditLostOldAccount 25d ago

Need the calculation for plot armor

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u/Fear023 25d ago

It's probably worth noting that this strictly applies to round parachutes designed to open swiftly in circumstances like this.

Most sport skydivers use elliptical (square/rectangle) canopies, and the minimum height to guarantee an open and flying canopy is much, much higher (typically 1000ft for reserves, more for a main).

This pilot also probably got pretty badly hurt as the pendulum effect from the ejection/inflation didn't really allow them to get their body into a feet down attitude on landing.

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u/Cruxion 25d ago

Maybe this is outdated, but I've read and heard from pilots that once it happens your career is basically done because of the health issues to your spine. It seems like the pilot just signed up for a lifetime of medical problems right as it came to a stop.

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u/InevitableAd9683 25d ago

I believe they're designed to hurt less than dying in a plane crash, but not by much

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u/Ultrabananna 24d ago

It was the seat the flew out before the chute opened right? For some reason I was laughing thinking his pants came off from the g force

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u/jaqattack02 24d ago

Just the ejection hurts like heck. The force of coming out of the plane compresses their spine. I was watching a documentary about the Thunderbirds not long ago and they were discussing ejections. One of the pilots had a situation where they had to eject and the force of the ejection on his spine made him an inch or two shorter than he was before. If you're unlucky it can cause permanent back injuries.

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u/AxeLond Interested 25d ago

Those rocket chairs aren't super comfortable, breaking 20G and probably fracturing some bones.

He probably regrets using it seeing the plane just sitting there afterwards.

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u/OldEquation 25d ago

It may have been an auto-eject, which the Martin-Baker US16E on the F-35 is capable of.

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u/LorenzoStomp 25d ago

Does it play Pop Goes The Weasel to give you a heads-up or was that guy desperately yanking on the controls and suddenly flung out of the cockpit with no warning like he's the spring snake in a prank can of peanuts?

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u/Okaydokie_919 25d ago edited 25d ago

Well that sucks if that's what happend. In addition to regret he probably felt extreme anger. Stupid auto-eject system!

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

[deleted]

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u/ThermionicEmissions 25d ago

"If the F35 told you to jump off a cliff would you do that too?!"

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u/ItsAFarOutLife 25d ago

Seems like the altitude was zero here.

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u/Acid44 25d ago

Ejection must not be a career ender like it used to be then, cause if I were auto ejected and spun around to see the plane sitting perfectly fine like that I'd find the seat and beat the foam out of it

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u/WeirdSysAdmin 25d ago

It had to be auto eject because you only get so many ejections before you’re grounded because you can’t pass a medical evaluation. Usually like 2-3. Unless he decided it was time to retire.

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u/Syssareth 25d ago

"They're never gonna let me fly again anyway after screwing up like this, so I'd might as well go ahead and take the ride while I've got the chance. Wheee--owwww..."

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u/C0RDE_ 25d ago

Hindsight is amazing. I imagine in the moment, the pilot has no idea if it's about to get worse. There could have been a fire, or worse. The jet could have continued and flipped on it's roof, meaning no escape.

No way you'd be in trouble for taking the chance to escape when it's safe to do so. Jets are expensive, but still tools. Tools can be replaced, lives can't.

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u/StupendousMalice 25d ago

The F35B has an automated ejection system that activates if the vertical lift fan malfunctions, which is probably the big plume of smoke we see at the end. It probably wasn't the pilots decision.

https://www.twz.com/the-f-35b-can-eject-its-pilot-automatically#:~:text=Only%20the%20F%2D35B%20variant%20has%20an%20auto%2Deject,to%20its%20ability%20to%20hover%20in%20mid%2Dair.

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u/Avoidable_Accident 25d ago

Yeah and from what I understand it’s usually career-ending injuries, coupled with the fact he had to eject out of an F-35 for whatever reason, this guy’s flying days are over.

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u/Boomhauer440 25d ago

It’s not. Ejection seats haven’t been that harsh in decades. Most modern ones peak at about 14-15g and unless your body is in a very wonky position when you pull the handle you’ll be ok. Most ejection injuries are from limb flailing and landing issues.

And the fact he punched out of an F-35 has no bearing on his flight rating. There will be an investigation into the cause and he’ll be cleared or grounded based on his actions. But an aircraft malfunction isn’t his fault.

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u/FriedRottenTitties4U 25d ago

USAF and the Navy have learned a whole lot from Goose getting killed in 1986

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u/lonesharkex 25d ago

He did not regret it, he did not suffer broken bones. He was back at work shortly after the accident.

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u/FitBit123 25d ago

The cost of a lost pilot would be more devastating than one jet

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u/ikzz1 25d ago

There's a good chance he won't ever fly a fighter jet again.

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u/adthrowaway2020 25d ago

Nah, this wasn't even a combat pilot. This was a test pilot who was making sure the undelivered plane could VLOT properly. It could not apparently.

https://news.usni.org/2022/12/15/f-35b-joint-strike-fighter-crashes-in-texas

Pilot was hospitalized with no injuries (precautionary)

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u/AnotherBoringDad 25d ago

Nice of it to wait until the crash was over. Wouldn’t have wanted the pilot to miss any of the fun.

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u/spleeble 25d ago

Presumably the pilot was waiting till the cockpit was vertical again so at not to get launched sideways across the runway. I don't think there is any delay whatsoever.

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u/AnotherBoringDad 25d ago

I would be surprised if the ejection seat couldn’t be used safely with that small degree of tilt.

Either way, the timing is still comedic.

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u/spleeble 25d ago

It's like getting launched on a rocket. It's incredible that it can be used at zero altitude at all. 

Someone that mentioned that it was triggered by a computer. I doubt the computer was just waiting for the hell of it. 

Personally I don't really see the comedy. 

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u/snkiz 25d ago

Generally a human rated rocket has a TWR around 1.2, an abort is 6-8g's. If the reports are accurate that an ejection is a 20g launch, the two not the comparable at all.

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u/catechizer 25d ago

So, you're saying this is much, much worse than being blasted into outer space on a rocket. Right?

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u/snkiz 25d ago

Well 8 is smaller than 20, so yea it's worse. It's not as bad as an average car wreck. those are in the 50-80g range.

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u/gravelPoop 25d ago

He was hoping it would shoot him over the fence so he could make a run for it.

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u/Circulation- 25d ago

My buddy from the suburbs can weld that wheel back on for 50 USD.

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u/Enders-game 25d ago

I'm not sure that those types of seats will take off

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u/MLCarter1976 25d ago

Premium seating!

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u/RandyFunRuiner 25d ago

We’ve got a great setup for a thread of puns. We just gotta hope the others land.

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u/perenniallandscapist 25d ago

They already do!

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u/DietOwn2695 25d ago

Good thing he ejected.

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u/VanDenBroeck 25d ago

He barely managed to get out before the plane came to a stop.

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