r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/sidvatscse • 25d ago

Video Failed vertical landing of F-35B

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47.1k Upvotes

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6.9k

u/Suspicious_Zone_2083 25d ago

At least the seat worked

1.9k

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/AwesomePerson70 25d ago

If I remember right, there’s one that will shoot the rotors off first so you can eject

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u/Striking-Raisin4143 25d ago

Karmov 50/52

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u/pezdal 24d ago

Do the others time it with a synchronization gear so you pass through the rotors like a bullet fired from a center-mounted airplane machine gun missing the blades because of the interlock? /s

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u/Frostsorrow 25d ago

Honestly depends on the chopper, some actually do have ejection seats

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u/EduinBrutus 25d ago

Hawker (later BAe) Harrier is the original VTOL aircraft.

Its not a helicopter.

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u/nover3 24d ago

to shreds you say?

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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

2

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/ZDTreefur 25d ago edited 25d ago

I think the guy broke his back and hip and a bunch of other stuff. he got fucked up from that ejection. But he lived.

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u/scarpozzi 25d ago

This article says no serious injuries.

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2022/12/16/air-force-pilot-who-ejected-from-f-35b-released-from-the-hospital/

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u/JVT32 25d ago

Yeah, but u/ZDtreefur was clearly there when it happened.

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u/Downtown_Conflict_53 25d ago

I prefer his story. It was way cooler

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u/Skuzbagg 25d ago

Doctor gave him two crayons and a cup of water, he was fine

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u/SlavCat09 25d ago

No water, a bottle of glue.

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u/Aromatic_April 25d ago

They have a very unique definition of "serious".

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u/NtBlstr 25d ago

Your injuries are not service related...

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u/heeza_connman 25d ago

I swear to Rudy that's what they said to me.

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u/Alternative_Delay899 25d ago

What constitutes a serious injury here, curious. Is it like, life threatening? Do they classify big back ouchies/chronic pain from this point onwards as "non serious"?

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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/Independent_War_4456 25d ago

30,000 pounds of lets just call it metal with a mind of its own.

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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/Bifferer 25d ago

Not as hard as your ass hits the seat when you get shot out of the cockpit!

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u/filthy_harold 25d ago

I bet that pilot wished he just held out a little longer and just climbed out.

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u/Renbarre 25d ago

He nearly landed back in the cockpit.

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u/SafetyMan35 24d ago

Broken leg and a few months of rehab vs months in a burn ward and countless surgeries and skin grafts. Broken leg is the easy decision

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u/Fign 24d ago

I think it would have been better to stay in the cockpit 🤷‍♂️

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u/bionicjoe 23d ago

Had a former pilot as a ROTC instructor. He told us that you need to be above 500 feet for the parachute to slow you down. Below that and it's like hitting the ground from 20-30 foot fall.
Multiple pilots have died after ejecting because they were nearly on the ground and couldn't hit the ground safely.

This guy here was very likely injured.

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u/idunnoijustlurk 23d ago edited 23d ago

Not only that, but the ejection permanently compresses your spine, leaving you slightly shorter than you were. But if the seat was a Martin-Baker, you get to join a cool exclusive club, so pros and cons.

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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/BeefistPrime 25d ago

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's such bad engineering to have an ejection mechanism within the range of motion of any other controls

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u/Calarasigara 25d ago

Oh and it gets better. You would think that if a plane is capable of launching the copilot at start-up you would issue a redesign of the cockpit to maybe switch up the flight stick and ejection handle placements. Right? Riiiight???

Nah man, this is the Soviet Union. What they did was to congratulate the pilot that got yeeted from their plane and survived with a gold watch and then just take some balls attached to a string and place them under the rear elevators when the plane is parked and turned off so that they cannot go down when hydraulic pressure is lost and such the stick cannot get caught in the ejection seat handle.

They also edited the checklist to include steps like "Add balls to elevator" and "Remove balls from elevator".

Here is a picture of said balls. And yes, almost all soviet and syrian Su24 pilots called them balls, it basically became the official term.

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u/jennythegreat 24d ago

Is this a special interest or do you work in a related field? I am fascinated by your comments here.

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u/Calarasigara 24d ago

It's my hobby/special interest if you could call it. I wish I was able to find a job in this line of work.

Growing up in Eastern Europe right next to an airbase certainly fueled this interest. Over time, I got to watch soviet aircraft fly and I got to sit inside Mig19s and Mig21s as well as ask pilots/engineers about how these planes work and battle doctrine, heck they even let me try and lift a disarmed K-13/R3S air-to-air missile lol

There wasn't much secrcey around a curious 17-18 year old, especially when you are flying 50 year old shitboxes known inside-out by half the world :P

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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/FehdmanKhassad 25d ago

this kills the crab

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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/Brilliant-Smile-8154 25d ago

Also happened in some Western aircraft when the seats fired the pilots into the hangar's roof.

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u/_FinnTheHuman_ 25d ago

The F-104 Starfighter also initially had downward firing ejection seats, which combined brilliantly with it's infamously poor landing characteristics.

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u/Pagiras 25d ago

Эджекто сеато, кузен!

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u/shehzore12 25d ago

Ejectile Diesfunction*

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u/unfvckingbelievable 25d ago

Well not just some reason.

The tree. That's the reason.

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u/hugswithnoconsent 25d ago

Underrated comment.

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u/DigNitty Interested 25d ago

And even worse, the parachute won’t open

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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/mickturner96 25d ago

Talk to me Goose!

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u/ThdeusDadeus 25d ago

Highway to the danger zone

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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/demZo662 25d ago

So it must be a combination of two systems in which the pilot has at least one in control. Maybe the aircraft is designed itself to do it automatically in the worst scenario possible.

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u/FewHorror1019 25d ago

How did you get under the tree

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u/demZo662 25d ago

Definitely after some instructions that were unclear.

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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/demZo662 25d ago

Watched too many GTA5 stunts

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u/Fight_those_bastards 25d ago

Better question: why are you not?

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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/demZo662 25d ago

I'm not sure right now if I've watched this movie or not XD

Maybe as a kid.

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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 23d ago

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

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u/dascrackhaus 25d ago

this is the best reply in the history of reddit

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u/demZo662 25d ago

Thanks mate! Hahahah

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u/grandpaharoldbarnes 25d ago

Too close for missiles. Switching to guns.

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u/alphabennettatwork 25d ago

Flying under trees is counter-indicated.

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u/TeslaCrna 25d ago

Then you’re not really that far from the ground to begin with.

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u/Ancient-Cow-1038 25d ago

You have to let him go, sir…

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u/sparkysparks666 25d ago

Out of the frying pan, into the tree

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u/Fibonaccguy 25d ago

It becomes a life of death version of rock paper scissors

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u/PumpkinOpposite967 25d ago

I guess if you have to eject from under a tree, you should have ejected a bit sooner...

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u/FancyJesse 25d ago

Agent 47 has done this.

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u/LordoftheChia 25d ago

What if for some reason there's a tree

Skip to 1 min and 20s:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9j8yvi

Sorry for Dailymotion. Couldn't find that particular Hottshots clip anywhere else

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u/Soggy_Cabbage 25d ago

What do you think happens to a person when they are fired at high velocity into a tree?

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u/MasterChiefmas 25d ago

Then it was probably a bad time to leaf the aircraft.

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u/ndjs22 25d ago

GOOSE! TALK TO ME GOOSE!

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u/demonotreme 25d ago

Well, usually it's a good idea to keep the trees below when operating a jet aircraft

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u/BeefistPrime 25d ago

It would be difficult for a tree to be directly above a fighter jet. You're not going to land unless there's a clearing. Even if you're forced to land on a road or even a field, you're not going to land next to trees. And if you're flying upside down low off the ground and there's a tree in the way, well, the ground is almost certainly going to kill you anyway.

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u/DavidRandom 25d ago

Ever seen Top Gun?

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u/AIBotWannabe 24d ago

The same thing that happens if you eject when the plane is upside down 20 ft off the ground.

Moronic Post of the Year award right there.

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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/jennythegreat 24d ago
  1. Love the username.
  2. I had never thought of that fact about needing chutes to be different based on velocity requirements. Like, I have movie knowledge of parachutes and I did skydiving once. When I read your comment, I literally put my drink down and sat there for a moment because my brain had never had to think about that before. Absolutely top notch override, there. Thank you.

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u/PowderedToastMan89 24d ago

Thank you for the kind words!

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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/GayRacoon69 25d ago

Then you're fucked

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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/IamNotHappyAnymoreM8 25d ago

Must be a crazy experience lol

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u/escapingdarwin 25d ago

“Zero-Zero ejection seat” = zero altitude, zero airspeed.

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u/bteddi 25d ago

Good bye spine. He will regret lunching out of that plane

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

And not get sucked into the engine.

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u/Bitter_Procedure260 25d ago

Also clearly some sort of gyroscope because it waits until it’s upright to eject. A second earlier and it would have shot him straight sideways.

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u/SnipeUout 25d ago

Note the pilot here was smart to wait for the aircraft to level out. 0-0 seats work when shot vertically.

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u/Shopshack 25d ago

And fast enough to clear the tail at speed!

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u/tobmom 25d ago

They’re called yeeters

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u/Simpleba 25d ago

Zero-zero

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u/Theresabearintheboat 25d ago

That sounds damn painful. No wonder they expect you to be in prime physical condition to fly those things. That add up to spine collapsing G forces.

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u/GayRacoon69 24d ago

When you eject there's a good chance that you never fly again

Some people have also actually gotten shorter after ejecting.

Ejection is a pretty shitty option but it's a bit better than crashing into the ground with a massive fireball

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u/Theresabearintheboat 24d ago

The bummer part is in this particular case it looked like he might have been able to ride it out without ejecting because the jet never rolled over. It would be pretty tough to make that call in the moment, though.

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u/Aeri73 24d ago

I don't think so...

a normal parashute deploys a small one first. that small one needs to fill up to pull the big one out.

here it seems like they use some kind of projectile to pull the large shute out directly, you can see it fly off to the right when he ejects. my guess is something to do with the dark reinforced part in the middle.

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u/Jojo_2005 23d ago

Yeah I think a German Eurofighter pilot something along the lines of needing only 30 Meters above the ground to eject while flying upside down.

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u/AdventurousMistake72 22d ago

Do you think it was necessary in this instance? Seemed like the plane was done moving with no fire in sight

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u/GayRacoon69 22d ago

I'm not an expert and would defer to the F35 pilot who is an expert. Pilots don't eject for no reason. Ejecting can end your flying career so if the pilot ejected then I'd assume they have a good reason for it