Like a beacon of dread the ejection handle on a fighter jet is a terrifying object – as initiating it would be the same as pulling the pin on a massive bomb beneath your backside. It’s going to bruise.
This is the part of the cockpit no pilot wants to have to touch – because it will set off an incredibly violent reaction, triggering a huge explosion beneath him or her as they rocket to safety. But it could save their life- and yesterday it did.
As two British RAF pilots recover from ‘minor injuries’ having ejected from their Hawk T2 craft above Anglesey yesterday, they know they may have notched up a once in a lifetime nightmare – hopefully the most violent ordeal of their careers.
Barely having time to acknowledge the word “eject” both pilots will have wrenched their heads back into their headrest to prepare as one or both pulled the ejection lever and they were blasted into a maelstrom of unimaginable noise and confusion.
One or both of them made that incredibly quick decision to take advantage of their plane’s barely upright position so ejecting would point them upwards to safety.
A split second after ejection was initiated they will have been catapulted at a speed through the air few humans survive, perhaps as much as a bone-crunching 20G-force at 50 feet per-second as a rocket fired them out of the cockpit and the nightmare was still not over.
The G-force alone might be double what most fighter pilots ever endure, even in wartime and the chance of serious injury or worse is sky-high. That is the measure of force on the human body, normally set at 1G on the ground and up to 5G on a rollercoaster.
It increases as jets manoeuvre at – literally – breakneck speeds and pilots are given special suits which pump varying pressures all their body to protect them from that force.
It can feel like being punched in the stomach or limb but the first stays in place whilst the G-Force is increasing.
Apart from learning about the correct posture for the explosion, it is impossible to train fully for ejection it because it is so hazardous.
I have sat on one of these bomb-catapult ejector seats, with a handle between your legs to set it off, after joining a war veteran fighter pilot called Brian, nicknamed “Sumo”, flying an RAF Tornado over Scotland in 2012.
It was one of the most exhilarating experiences I have had in decades of war reporting and flying in all kinds of warplanes and helicopters.
On take-off it was hard to take my eyes off the taped handle as the pilot, Gulf War veteran Wing Commander Brian “Sumo” James, then 42, told me to pull it only if he is incapacitated and the plane is in trouble and I needed to eject from the plane.
Otherwise, he advised me, he would pull a master control to eject for both of us …and that for now it was probably best to “leave it alone,” that we were just off on a one hour flight and there was nothing to worry about.
Fortunately my one hour Top Gun experience, which marked the one millionth flying of British Tornados, above Scotland did not go wrong and I was being flown by the best.
But I recall the G-Force suits pressurising as we went into dives and it felt like a person many times my weight sitting on me and not getting up.
If something does go wrong with the jet – and apparently it did yesterday, one or both flyers can pull the ejector handle or button, if the other is injured or unconscious.
The ejector control is indeed a frightening device, even though it may save your life, because you are told how violent the force will be and the chance of injury.
This can range from severe spinal, head or limb injuries caused by the immense pressure.
When ejection is initiated the canopy explodes above you and then you shoot through the air and if too high, perhaps 10,000 feet, you free fall uncontrollably until the parachute opens, possibly above enemy territory, a desert, mountains or the sea and maybe injured.
Some who are forced to eject suffer long-term back injuries or worse.
These two are said to have suffered minor injuries and they were lucky.
Their parachutes will have opened fairly soon after the jet explosion rocketing them to safety expired as they were low-flying.
When I flew in the Tornado I asked “Sumo” what pressure he endured in the Gulf War as he took evasive action from enemy missiles and he told me it was above 9G-force.
Even double the 4G I endured is hard to imagine without breaking something.
But the force these two pilots endured was probably five times that.
They are very fortunate only to have suffered minor injuries.
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