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i have posted in the past about not trusting controls to passengers you cannot reach.
i just read a passenger in a Model 12 ejected the canopy this weekend during aerobatics...then there is this guy who was shot thru the canopy.
As the plane rolled into another stomach-churning manoeuvre, the passenger was probably wishing that he was somewhere else.
Then, just like that, he was.
The man, a civilian joyriding with his air force pilot friend, accidentally grabbed the eject lever while trying to brace himself.
He was instantly fired through the aircraft's perspex canopy and blasted 320ft (100m) into the sky by the rocket-powered chair.
He then floated down to the ground with a parachute that opened automatically.
Experts said he was lucky to escape unharmed from the bizarre accident last week in South Africa.
Air Force bosses scrambled a helicopter to pick him up after the blunder near Langebaanweg airfield, 80 miles north of Cape Town.
The pilot of the Pilatus PC-7 Mk II was an experienced member of the Silver Falcons air force air display team, Captain Gerhard Lourens. It is thought that he was the passenger's friend.
Civilians are not usually allowed in the turboprop aircraft, and an air force spokesman confirmed that officials had launched an investigation into the accident.
He added: 'Much of the information has yet to be tested, but it is confirmed that a civilian passenger unintentionally ejected from a Silver Falcons Pilatus PC-7 Mk II Astra during a general flying sortie out of Langebaanweg Air Force Base.
i just read a passenger in a Model 12 ejected the canopy this weekend during aerobatics...then there is this guy who was shot thru the canopy.
As the plane rolled into another stomach-churning manoeuvre, the passenger was probably wishing that he was somewhere else.
Then, just like that, he was.
The man, a civilian joyriding with his air force pilot friend, accidentally grabbed the eject lever while trying to brace himself.
He was instantly fired through the aircraft's perspex canopy and blasted 320ft (100m) into the sky by the rocket-powered chair.
He then floated down to the ground with a parachute that opened automatically.
Experts said he was lucky to escape unharmed from the bizarre accident last week in South Africa.
Air Force bosses scrambled a helicopter to pick him up after the blunder near Langebaanweg airfield, 80 miles north of Cape Town.
The pilot of the Pilatus PC-7 Mk II was an experienced member of the Silver Falcons air force air display team, Captain Gerhard Lourens. It is thought that he was the passenger's friend.
Civilians are not usually allowed in the turboprop aircraft, and an air force spokesman confirmed that officials had launched an investigation into the accident.
He added: 'Much of the information has yet to be tested, but it is confirmed that a civilian passenger unintentionally ejected from a Silver Falcons Pilatus PC-7 Mk II Astra during a general flying sortie out of Langebaanweg Air Force Base.
