back to article Belgian F-16 pilot rescued from power line after emergency ejection

A Belgian F-16 fighter jet pilot has been rescued from a power line after getting into difficulties and ejecting from his stricken aircraft. The two-seat jet, which appeared to be on a routine and unarmed flight, was flying between Belgium and a French naval aviation base when it came down between Pluvigner and Landaul in …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The F-16 aircraft was unarmed and its cargo is under investigation

    I imagine its cargo now consists of several pounds of "Belgian chocolate"...

    1. Semtex451
      Coat

      Re: The F-16 aircraft was unarmed and its cargo is under investigation

      and possibly his underpants too

  2. BebopWeBop

    Trappe(d)

    I'm glad nothing but pride was injured, but I would imagine the crew are treating themselves with liberal doses of Chimay or similar

  3. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    Sparky McSparkface

  4. AndrueC Silver badge
    Happy

    the most convenient free service El Reg could find

    You called Alistair?

  5. Stratman

    Hmmm.... 'Security' or 'Emergent Tech' ;-)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm sure he'll be looking forward to changing into clean, fresh underwear now that he is safe on the ground.

  7. AceRimmer1980
    IT Angle

    After pressure from eco-hippies, they were experimenting with hybrid F16's, and he was trying an air to air recharge?

  8. DamesJerry
    Black Helicopters

    This whole situation is... Shocking

    1. FrogsAndChips Silver badge

      Someone will have to take the fall for this.

    2. Ken Shabby
      Holmes

      Belgian shock-a-lot.

  9. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    Out of the fire into the frying-pan.

  10. Zebo-the-Fat

    New secret equipment

    It was a trial of electric powered flight, he was just just trying to connect a long extension cable to the aircraft!

  11. knarf

    Pilot now shorter and one chance left

    You only get two ejections before your eh... retired or fired. It compresses your spine and its not recommended

    1. John Robson Silver badge

      Re: Pilot now shorter and one chance left

      And it's incredibly expensive!

      Sure the RAF used to allow three though...

    2. Arthur the cat Silver badge

      Re: Pilot now shorter and one chance left

      It compresses your spine and its not recommended

      Given the choice between a compressed spine and death, I wouldn't take long to choose.

      1. Robert Helpmann??
        Paris Hilton

        Re: Pilot now shorter and one chance left

        Given the choice between a compressed spine and death, I wouldn't take long to choose.

        Of course you wouldn't because the ground is apt to choose for you if you are less than prompt.

        1. Persona Silver badge

          Re: Pilot now shorter and one chance left

          There is at least one instance where a plane went down in the water and the pilot had to make the decision to eject underwater or drown. One of the rather unique concerns in this event is to hope that the aircraft carrier is not passing overhead.

          1. Tom Paine

            Re: Pilot now shorter and one chance left

            Well don't leave us hanging around in suspense -- what happened?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Pilot now shorter and one chance left

      Perhaps 2 buttons? The normal emergency one... and the "Oh well, we are high enough to do it slowly, but seems everything is kinda broke right now"?

      1. Jwdb
        Alert

        Re: Pilot now shorter and one chance left

        Not a bad idea, but one button only is safer and more reliable: you don't want to be fumbling about trying to figure out which button is which or debating about how much time you've got left when you've really only got a split second. One button is also less complex than having a dual-mode ejection seat, so less likely to fail in an emergency.

      2. Stoneshop
        Boffin

        Re: Pilot now shorter and one chance left

        Well, you're choosing to go up[0] while the plane is going forward[1], and you will lose forward speed the moment you're out of the cockpit. Which means that you have to be clear of the tail the moment it passes under[2] you, and preferably with some margin. If not you may well have a *much* shorter spine due to it being fragmented because of a collision with a bit of metal sticking up[3] at the back of the plane you just chose to get out of.

        [0] relative to the plane. Might well be down relative to the earth.

        [1] more or less.

        [2] see [0]

        [3] see [0] once more

        1. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
          Joke

          Re: Pilot now shorter and one chance left

          Perhaps we need another button for an inverted ejection - saves all that worrying about hitting the tail faff and you might actually end up taller?

          1. nagyeger

            Re: Pilot now shorter and one chance left

            Especially useful near the ground. Wasn't there some plane / design once that did sideways ejection?

            1. TeeCee Gold badge

              Re: Pilot now shorter and one chance left

              ISTR that the F-111 had a load of avionics in the cockpit roof so the seats fired downwards. 111 pilots were drilled in half-rolling the aircraft before pulling the ejection lever until it became an automatic reaction. This to ensure that low-level bangouts didn't result in firing the crew into the turf as the 111 was often used in a TERCOM guided, low-approach role.

              It took the USAF a while to figure out why there was a noticeable spike in fatalities amongst pilots ejecting at low altitude on other aircraft types....(!)

              1. Double Ejection

                Re: Pilot now shorter and one chance left

                The F-111 cockpit with all of it's avionics ejected from the aircraft with both pilots. There were a few survivable ejections, those that did not survive was due to the ejection sequence being initiated in an out of envelope configuration. There were several RAAF fatalities in the F-111, of those only one was initiated when the aircraft was in an unsurvivable attitude due to a bird strike on the windshield at low altitude.

          2. The Basis of everything is...
            Mushroom

            Re: Pilot now shorter and one chance left

            The USAF fitted downward ejection seats on early F104 Starfighters. Not exactly useful if you had an unfortunate event while landing. They were called Widowmaker by the Germans for their poor safety record.

        2. Electronics'R'Us
          Stop

          Re: Pilot now shorter and one chance left

          The ejection seat in question is known as a zero/zero seat (a safe ejection can be made from a stationary aircraft on flat ground - zero altitude, zero speed).

          Earlier ejection seats (such as those in the now long retired Sea Vixen and Buccaneer) required a minimum forward speed (90 knots IIRC) at zero altitude for a safe ejection.

          It has a rocket pack beneath the seat (as indeed all modern fighter aircraft do) which engages when the base of the seat passes the cockpit sills which will easily push the seat (and occupant) well clear of the tail.

          In this particular aircraft, the seats are also angled outward slightly by the trajectory divergence rocket (so the two occupants do not collide) if they happen to eject such that they would try to occupy the same physical space.

    4. Baldrickk

      Re: Pilot now shorter and one chance left

      Maybe we need to build in the Weaver Ejection system - no need for an ejector seat if the plane falls away around you!

      https://theaviationist.com/2015/03/17/sr-71-mid-air-disintegration/

  12. OssianScotland

    Shocking..

    He'll be very glad to get ohm, given his current situation

    1. Shadow Systems

      Re: Shocking..

      That pun was revolting. You should be charged with assault & battery. =-)P

  13. Captain Scarlet
    Devil

    Several variations

    Person thinks hmm never seen this button before

    *Presses Button*

    That would be me, thankfully the Emergency Stop here was disconnected long before we purchased the building, although I was told stop pressing it.

  14. bpfh
    Pint

    In a sparsely populated very rural area of France...

    Parts of the aircraft managed to hit a house in the back end of bloody nowhere, and one of the aviators got hung of a pylon.

    And we in IT think we can have a bad day. Have a beer lads, you have been through it’s deserved!

    1. Baldrickk

      Re: In a sparsely populated very rural area of France...

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhyUSnzClGk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5_NY-UbKFw

      When these came down, I was away in a caravan. The one that didn't land on the runway landed just beyond the gate into the next field.

  15. Blockchain commentard

    Me thinks of Boris (when Mayor), hanging on a zip wire. Perhaps his callsign will now be Boris?

  16. Mayday
    Coat

    "It is unknown whether the pilot's colleagues have given him the new callsign Sparky."

    A friend suffered a similar fate when we (and others) were skydiving together. I made it back to the DZ and he wrapped himself around a power line and caused a lovely blue and rather large spark. His nickname is now "Flash".

  17. cb7

    What were the 100 policemen for? Stop people stealing a crashed F-16?

    1. ChrisC Silver badge

      Depending on how large the debris field is from the crash, you could well need a few hundred police/security personnel out there to secure it all, partly to stop people making off with souvenirs and partly to protect the genpub from getting too close to something that might do them some real harm, before you even then start thinking about how many more you'd need to do the more routine police-type activities - e.g. directing traffic away from the area, door-to-door property visits to evacuate any other local residents - that any major incident like this could involve.

  18. Montreal Sean

    That one really came down to the wire!

  19. Montreal Sean

    He was tired

    He just needed a little boost and found a good spot to recharge.

  20. Winkypop Silver badge
    Alert

    F16

    Now we know what the "F" stands for

  21. ElectricPics

    There is no 'button' to eject folks, it's a fairly large pull handle located between the crew's legs. Some aircraft used to have it behind their headrest with a hood that came over their head to protect it in the event of the canopy failing to be jettisoned prior to the seat firing.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like