Probe into navigator death begins

Probe into navigator death begins

news.bbc.co.uk

An investigation is under way following the death of a navigator who ejected from an RAF Tornado fighter aircraft.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the man left the aircraft during an "inverted roll" on a routine test flight over Norfolk on Wednesday.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Suicide or accident perhaps?

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

I can vaguely recall a story about a civilian who brought a jet of the RAF (vampire I think) and on one of the first flights he too his friend or brother up. Inverted the aircraft and his mates seat slid right through the canopy - needless to say he did not survive.

The cause was down to the techs who decommissioned the ejector seat, they had removed the required systems but did not install the seat again properly.

Wonder if this could be a similar situation. Black box would give a definitive answer as to weather the navigator operated the seat I suppose. Cant imagine those things have a life of their own.

Also if this was BAE staff - where they just on a delivery flight?? if they were what were they doing inverted in the first place? Mind you if I had controll of a Tornado I would SO NOT be responsible for my actions

These types of accidents happen more often then people think.

Another interesting feature (for a two-seat airplane, only one of which seats had access to the actual controls), the ejection seats were completely independent - a pilot could eject and leave his (non-pilot) bombardier behind. I don’t know that this ever actually happened, but I do no of one case in which the bombardier was partially ejected, but the rocket motor didn’t fire - he got stuck there in the wind blast, until his pilot landed the jet on the aircraft carrier.

www.neptunuslex.com...

another similer accident involving a cockpit accident.

Initial analysis has determined that the pilot's lapbelt became unfastened when SB #2 rolled inverted, causing the pilot to fall out of his seat and lose control of the aircraft.

www.airforce.forces.gc.ca...

The investigation has not found any pertinent technical deficiencies with the ejection system and has focussed on what actions the student pilot may have taken, which accidently initiated the ejection sequence. Immediate preventive measures taken as a result of this incident include briefing all pilots on the requirement to meticulously adhere to the proper strap-in procedure. The investigation is on-going, however there are indications that a communications cord may have been routed through the student pilot's ejection seat handle during the strap-in process.

www.airforce.forces.gc.ca...

From my experince it is most likely a accidental ejection and I would highly question a suicide idea.

[edit on 22/08/06 by Canada_EH]