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News breaking now of a Red Arows pilot ejecting whilst on the ground ...

Not a good three months for the Red Arrows

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/8877315/Red-Arrows-pilot-dies-after-ejector-seat-accident.html

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Brent Best

Further details awaited, but here a picture.



RIP

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/tallyho2015/albums

RIP

We await further clarity ... but The Hawk is fitted with the MB Mk.10 Zero/Zero seat ..

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Brent Best

Apparently Red 3's ejection seat fired whilst taxying. Parachute did not deploy.

RIP Red 3.

All RAF Hawks fitted with the MB Mk.10, were grounded in July last year, after faults were found with the ejection seat.
I wonder if it is releated

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-10782263

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Brent Best

A Red Arrows pilot Flight Lieutenant Sean Cunningham flying as Red 5, killed early morning today in an ejection seat incident at team's home base Scampton. The injured pilot was transfer by helicopter to a hospital, when he died. The team now is on a winter training program, where the new team's pilots for 2012 are in training.
Sean Cunningham was born in South Africa.

Source: http://aerobaticteams.net/news/red-arrows-pilot-died-ejection-seat-incident.html

Wow, so sad.

Condolences.

Apparently the hood did not fragment either?

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/tallyho2015/albums

very sad indeed

Why are seats not to be ejected when on the ground?
Because the parachute has too little time to open?

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Roshan Bachan

Actually zero-zero seats can work properly from a parked aircraft, not sure if the Red Arrows seats are such a type though.
The article actually says the parachute did not function but whether that means it malfunctioned or isn't suposed to work in that circumstance is not clear. Seeing as the ejection was accidental rather than intentional and thus due to a malfunction it is quite possible that the proper sequence of events during an ejection did not happen.

One of the best known succesful zero-zero ejections can be seen in film of the "Forrest fire" incident when the USS Forrestal went up in flames after a rocket accidentally fired from a plane parked on the deck.

Does anyone have a list of which marks of M-B seats are zero-zero rated?

From the Official RAF website, a tribute to Flight Lieutenant Sean Cunningham, RAF Aerobatic Team (Red Arrows):-

http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/archive/red- ... d-09112011

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/tallyho2015/albums

Whilst having a brief look to see if I could find the information, I came across this site: http://www.ejectionsite.com/ejecttriv.htm and was amazed by this incident:

Most Miraculous Ejection

This one goes to an Israeli pilot flying an A4 Skyhawk at low level approx. 350 kts. The pilot reports he was flying straight and level, then he was lying on his back on the valley floor with a massive headache. Israeli analysis of his damaged helmet and the debris of the aircraft detected traces of bird blood and a single feather as well as fragments of HUD glass in his face. Apparently he was the victim of a bird strike directly to the front wind screen. The bird continued thru the canopy, demolished the HUD and smashed the visor on the pilots helmet, knocking him unconcious. How did he eject? Answer: enough of the birds corpse deflected upward off his helmet to strike the upper ejection handles and fire the seat!!!

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A plan is simply a basis for change.

A list no, but as far as I can ascertain the Red Arrows' Hawks are fitted with a Martin Baker 10b which is a zero-zero rated seat.

http://www.martin-baker.com/products/Ej ... k--10.aspx

My questions are:-

- Can the seat be activated at will or does the pilot need to make certain preparations before the ejection?
- Could the seat have been accidentally activated before certain preparations were in place, if it was an accidental ejection?

Or does it not matter when you 'pull the handles'?

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/tallyho2015/albums

The ejection seat has many safety pins and these are removed by the Ground crew once the pilot is strapped in (SOP) and if I remember correctly shown to the pilot. The seat is then live and the cord only needs to move 2cm for the seat to fire.

In the past the RAF have had problems with their seats on the Hawk.

The sequence of events that happen between the lever being pulled and the pilot hanging from a sucessfully opened parachute is a fairly long and complex list. It's not just one big bang.
Various devices need to be actuated in the correct sequence and timing. If any of those components fail...