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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/1 ... ector-seat

The RAF's entire fleet of Typhoon fighter jets has been grounded after a pilot fell to his death using his ejection seat, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed today.

All 64 planes, one of the UK's most important lines of defence, were ordered not to fly after a crewman from the Spanish airforce died when his parachute came away after he ejected.

to the Spanish pilot.

The guy who sent me the article works on the type and reckons the grounding and subsequent checks/repairs are going to cost about £80M. Not what the beleaguered programme needs at the moment.

Wasn't there recently another grounding of a fighter for something like this?

Airfoilsguy wrote:Wasn't there recently another grounding of a fighter for something like this?

The Hawk T1, T1A and 100s (which includes the Red Arrows) were grounded recently due to a fault with the release bolts on the ejector seat.

Has anyone entertained the idea maybe the guy wasn't strapped in? I've heard of stranger things happening.

captoveur wrote:Has anyone entertained the idea maybe the guy wasn't strapped in? I've heard of stranger things happening.

Doubtful. From the reports, it appears his parachute harness assy. failed, which appears to have separated the parachute from the pilot's harnesses (though this isn't official yet, it has been widely reported). This is the seat in question, the MB Mk16A (high speed):-



I feel sorry for the poor pilot, who must have realised what was happening before he hit

Germany´s Typhoons got grounded as well. The remaining F-4 Phantom squadron had to take over the quick reaction role.

Jan