An Air Warfare Commander, sitting in the back seat, departed a F-14D without warning, taking the canopy and his Martin Baker seat with him.
Here's the backstory on the incident. On 6 November 2002 at NAS Fallon, NV, a battle-group-air-warfare commander (a Navy Captain) was being given an orientation flight in F-14D, BuNo 164341, of VF-213, "Black Lions".
During an inverted maneuver, the Captain must have flinched when he slightly rose out of the seat and pulled the ejection handle between his legs by accident. He was very lucky since all of the ejection and aviation-life-support-systems (ALSS) equipment functioned as designed.
The Captain landed in his parachute unscathed, was recovered almost immediately and transported to a local hospital for treatment and evaluation. The pilot, LT Geoff Vickers, made an uneventful landing back at NAS Fallon.
F-14D-170-GR, BuNo 164341, was repaired and returned to service with VF-213 back at its home base, NAS Oceana, VA. She would make the last operational catapult launch of a USN F-14 from the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) 28 July 2006. Went to AMARC for storage 20 September 2006. SOC 29 November 2006. Still there.
Here's the backstory on the incident. On 6 November 2002 at NAS Fallon, NV, a battle-group-air-warfare commander (a Navy Captain) was being given an orientation flight in F-14D, BuNo 164341, of VF-213, "Black Lions".
During an inverted maneuver, the Captain must have flinched when he slightly rose out of the seat and pulled the ejection handle between his legs by accident. He was very lucky since all of the ejection and aviation-life-support-systems (ALSS) equipment functioned as designed.
The Captain landed in his parachute unscathed, was recovered almost immediately and transported to a local hospital for treatment and evaluation. The pilot, LT Geoff Vickers, made an uneventful landing back at NAS Fallon.
F-14D-170-GR, BuNo 164341, was repaired and returned to service with VF-213 back at its home base, NAS Oceana, VA. She would make the last operational catapult launch of a USN F-14 from the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) 28 July 2006. Went to AMARC for storage 20 September 2006. SOC 29 November 2006. Still there.
