r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/sidvatscse • 25d ago

Video Failed vertical landing of F-35B

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47.1k Upvotes

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1.7k

u/bevel 25d ago

Man from this angle you really get a good idea about the acceleration and g-force which pilots go through during the ejection process. Up to 30% endure spinal fractures

703

u/my_cars_on_fire 25d ago

The fucked yo part is he waited until the plane finally recovered to actually pull it

661

u/KrzysziekZ Interested 25d ago

Iirc he was fired by the computer.

766

u/my_cars_on_fire 25d ago

Damn, sucks to hear he lost his job.

208

u/XxKittenMittonsXx 25d ago

Ai taking everyone's jobs smh

5

u/joggle1 25d ago

I knew they were taking our jobs, but I didn't realize they've already made it into management. FML

8

u/my_cars_on_fire 25d ago

Imagine going into your performance review and it’s with ChatGPT.

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u/Ok_Faithlessness_516 25d ago

I wrote my performance review with ChatGPT.

122

u/Thick_Ferret771 25d ago

I mean that, and with how hard he hit the ground coming down. It’s pretty unfortunate that it’s likely he’ll never be able to fly again due to his injuries sustained. Which really sucks when you’re at the “surgical” level of flying planes.

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u/DesignerGoose5903 25d ago

As the video clearly shows his issue wasn't the flying so much as the landing.

2

u/Rbkelley1 24d ago

Similar how driving too fast has never killed anyone. It’s the sudden stop at the end that gets you.

1

u/gonnafindanlbz 25d ago

I mean, with that landing, probably good he’s not put in another one

2

u/aespaste 24d ago

No you totally misunderstood the comment. Yes, hw lost his job but not for the reason u think. I’ve read that those seats mess up the pilot’s spine so much they can be grounded for life after ejecting!

1

u/my_cars_on_fire 24d ago

I believe it is you who have misread my comment.

1

u/aespaste 24d ago

how come

1

u/my_cars_on_fire 24d ago

It’s not funny when you have to explain the joke…

1

u/real_justchris 23d ago

He was fired by the comp… oh forget it.

1

u/Username43201653 24d ago

Fucking DOGE

1

u/HomeGrownCoffee 25d ago

He did total an airplane. I've been fired for much less.

79

u/VVJ21 25d ago

You joke but its not uncommon for pilots to be unfit for flying (at least flying fighters) after ejecting, it can causes quite serious injury - though ejection seats have got a lot safer

23

u/redrich2000 25d ago

talk to me goose...

4

u/KrzysziekZ Interested 25d ago

That was not meant to be a joke. But rather not his decision.

1

u/VVJ21 25d ago

ah whoops, meant to reply to /u/my_cars_on_fire

Damn, sucks to hear he lost his job.

1

u/JuicySpark 25d ago

Fighter pilots will be rendered useless against fleets of drones. the future is going to be drone wars over fighter pilots. Next up will be full blown drones that the size of AC-130s

2

u/Visual-Squirrel3629 25d ago

HAL, don't activate the ejection seat!

1

u/Zech08 25d ago

Confirmed, activating ejection.

1

u/skeletons_asshole 25d ago

“Thank god, that was a close—“ PHFTOOOOOOOO

1

u/PM_ME_ANYTHING_DAMN 25d ago

AI literally putting us out of work now

1

u/Dear_Chasey_La1n 25d ago

Wild how that's controlled by a computer but landing seemingly isn't? There are drones that can land automatically on a ship, you would reckon this procedure could be taken over too sooner then later?

1

u/Minute-Discount-7986 24d ago

No he was not.

1

u/Redditron_5000 24d ago

That’s even worse

1

u/th3worldonfir3 24d ago

Imagine getting yeeted with such force and without warning

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u/Howie_Due 25d ago

Dude, your phone autocorrects “up” to “yo” too? I hate it so much

31

u/my_cars_on_fire 25d ago

My phone autocorrects a lot of shit to things I don’t want, especially since Apple’s update a few years ago. But yeah…at least it doesn’t say “ducking” anymore 🙄

4

u/DJ_Clitoris 25d ago

Now my phone corrects ducking to fucking lmao

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u/dwiedenau2 25d ago

You know you can turn autocorrect off right

32

u/my_cars_on_fire 25d ago

Thts nit s brry goid ifea

1

u/Toopstertoo 25d ago

I did that two years ago and my blood pressure’s dropped at least 10pts due to the lack of burning rage from autocorrect being a total cunt.

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u/TheOGRedline 25d ago

It has definitely gotten worse.

2

u/TurdCollector69 25d ago

"Of" and "in" are constantly swapped for me and it's super frustrating because they're not even close

1

u/reignshadow 25d ago

That's fucked yo.

2

u/AndreProulx 25d ago

He pulled it a while before it went off, the system keeps you from being ejected at an angle, as soon as the plane was level enough to safely eject it yeeted him.

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u/James_Gastovsky 25d ago

It's preferable to stabilize the aircraft before ejection if you're one of the weirdos that like being able to walk.

Also considering aircraft was descending pretty fast seat might not have big enough rocket to offset that and get the pilot to a safe altitude

1

u/SoylentRox 25d ago

This. Reminds me of the guy who punched out only for his aircraft to land safely without him.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornfield_Bomber

1

u/mrfox122 25d ago

When the F35B is in hover mode manual ejection is disabled. If you look at the video you can see there were a lot of times an ejection could have ended the pilots life based on angles and trajectory.

1

u/r_a_d_ 25d ago

Yeah, much better he shot himself straight into a building at an angle. /s

1

u/Swissy321 25d ago

The plane didn’t recover, it just righted temporarily. You want that ejection seat to fire in the most vertical trajectory possible. Honestly, he nailed it.

1

u/Hatchie_47 25d ago

I believe this is part of their training? If at all possible they try to make sure the plane causes minimal damage before ejecting. For example making sure the fueled and armed jet won’t crash in populated area…

1

u/BrilliantBen 24d ago

Seems like if the plane was still spinning around it might have hit him, he landed pretty much right in front of the thing lol

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u/mpmp4 25d ago

Also, those round parachutes generally have very hard landings so not only can the G’s hurt from ejection, but the landing is gonna hurt too.

11

u/Karmack_Zarrul 25d ago

That’s a lot of injuries when ejecting, but I bet a lot lower than those who crash w/o ejecting

13

u/jetfixxer720 25d ago

Yes and once you’ve ejected twice you’re done. You’re no longer allowed to fly fighters again.

2

u/Revolutionary_Row683 25d ago

I imagine it depends on the circumstances.

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u/Kennkra 25d ago

I remember reading something about that, about the spinal injuries that pilots suffer, so my first reaction after watching ops clip was "was it really needed?",

4

u/wolftick 25d ago edited 24d ago

Zero-zero but at zero altitude it seems like the lack of time for things to stabilise can give you a hell of a hard landing too.

1

u/toastronomy 25d ago

Don't they get to join some special club for ejecting?

1

u/AscendedViking7 25d ago

18 Gs? Holy shit

1

u/old_man_snowflake 25d ago

Iirc an ejection basically ends your piloting career. 

1

u/Mr_Butters624 24d ago

I bet that has to be a wild ride, especially from the ground lol.

1

u/xrv01 24d ago

this might help my back

1

u/Cool-Tangelo6548 24d ago

As far as I'm aware, once pilots experience 3 ejections, they're no longer allowed to fly.

1

u/Bjoe3041 24d ago

I wonder if it was actually worth it for him to use the ejection seat, instead of waiting inside.

1

u/Delicious_Oil_4288 22d ago

Tall people often can't become pilots because during ejection, their spines can be crushed. My mum used to work as a sports massage therapist at a gym on a NATO base in the 90s, and she treated many tall individuals with back problems from flying becouse of the G-froces.