Incidents that put pilots in danger when parachuting

Spinal injuries leading to loss of ability to operate, coma due to severely damaged eardrums or technical problems causing parachutes to not deploy are dangers that can affect the pilot's life.

The moment the pilot's ejection seat flew out of the cockpit when the plane crashed. Photo: Aviationist

Day12/6/1999, the 43rd Paris Aerospace Show opened. Russia's most advanced fighter jet at that time, the Su-30MK, took off to perform in front of thousands of guests.

However, the demonstration was not a complete success when, in the last minutes, due to a miscalculation of the altitude, pilot Vyacheslav Averyanov let the tail of the plane touch the ground while performing acrobatics. With the right engine not damaged, the plane still raised its head to reach an altitude of 50 m. Immediately, Vyacheslav Averyanov and his teammate Vladimir Shendrik ejected. The two pilots on the Su-30MK then landed safely, walking on their own to everyone's amazement.

However, according to experts at Eureksante, not all ejections by pilots go so smoothly. In addition to the complexity of the situation, pilots also face a series of other unforeseen dangers.

The first danger arises from the high and sudden speed of the ejection seat. The extremely high acceleration affects the body of the person sitting in the seat. The first ejection seat tests during World War II were carried out with dummies. However, the British company Martin Berker at that time wanted to test with real people to get the necessary parameters. British pilot Bernard Lynch was one of the first to participate in the "live" tests. After the tests, mainly with the Gloster Meteor aircraft, this pilot said that it was very uncomfortable, especially feeling pain in the spine.

Former RAF pilot Craig Penrice was ejected from his Hawker Hunter at an airshow in Portrush, Northern Ireland, in 2003. He was later left temporarily paralyzed from the waist down due to damaged vertebrae and bone fragments lodged in his spinal cord.

In 1966, British pilot David Eagles took off in a Blackburn Buccaneer from the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious but had to eject due to a malfunction. The pilot suffered three broken vertebrae and was bedridden for months. Recalling his escape, Eagles said that immediately after ejecting, he felt like he was being stabbed in the back, and it only lasted for a split second.

In the first tests, British pilot Lynch was only subjected to 4Gs of acceleration. Modern ejection seats today are capable of up to 12-15Gs. Although manufacturers try to adjust the appropriate thrust and launch direction, it is impossible to completely eliminate the impact of acceleration on the pilot's spine, even though the impact only lasts about 0.15 seconds.

French pilots train for survival at sea. Photo: Ministre de la Defense

And so, when a sudden spinal injury occurs, it becomes more difficult for pilots to perform safety procedures as prescribed. In the event that a pilot lands on the sea, the situation becomes even more dangerous because they cannot perform the parachute removal procedures and this leads to drowning, which directly affects their lives immediately.

In addition, when ejecting from a high altitude, the pilot also faces another danger: the parachute cannot open and gets tangled due to the thin air. Currently, to overcome this disadvantage, manufacturers install additional pressure sensors. Thanks to that, the auxiliary parachute with a diameter of 1.5 m will only open the main parachute after reaching an altitude of less than 3,000 m. Thus, if the pressure sensor or the auxiliary parachute malfunctions when the ejection seat is at an altitude of more than 10 km, the pilot will face a very high risk of not being able to open the main parachute.

In addition, the ejection seat's falling speed of about 1,110 km/h also creates many dangers for pilots. Modern ejection seats have automatic mechanisms to fix the pilot's legs and arms in the appropriate position. Today, pilots are equipped with many modern devices such as night vision goggles and helmet-mounted target designators. The increased head weight also creates a risk of neck injury during the ejection process. In addition, incidents such as oxygen mask deployment or other automatic mechanisms malfunctioning can also put pilots in danger.

Another risk to the pilot's life is falling into a state of fainting. If the pilot is forced to activate the emergency parachute seat from a high altitude, their eardrums will be severely impacted, even suddenly ruptured due to the rapid change in atmospheric pressure. This will cause the pilot to lose consciousness and be unable to perform safe operations. If the parachute lands on the ground, the pilot may break his leg. If the parachute lands in the sea, their chance of survival is almost zero./.

According to VNE