![]() I was extremely sad to learn the boy died I have never forgotten him ![]() The little boy was seen by my sister because we were at the end of the tour so literally him and his brother were right behind us in line to get in the plane pilots seat.my father had gotten tickets for the event from the tobyhanna army depot where he worked, it was the 4th of July weekend and it was extremely hot out that weekend i have tons of memories from that day and truly an incredible story of surviving the blast. So all around not a day that i have or will ever forget. My father grabbed me up and carried me like a sack of potatoes while he had my sister grab his belt loop ( without shoes no less ) and he ran like he was back in vietnam I’m floored to actually see this post because not only did that happen that day but I ended up with 3rd degree sunburn and sun poisoning. At the very least more heavily enforced the UA equipment rule.Īpparently it was not all that difficult to bypass all those safety systems.Ĭlick to expand.This happened in 1980 on the July 4th weekend, i was 5 years old and unfortunately i was right there where it happened, we were under the fuselage of the plane after just having sat in the pilots seat, the explosion happened ( we physically saw the fireball and seat go up ) the canopy never blew off the seat essentially went through it. I have to believe they changed the design of that system after that. When they trapped, the GPS broke free and hit the firing pin on the pilot's ejection seat tossing the pilot through the canopy. The RIO had an unauthorized personal handheld GPS strapped in the back seat. They flew out a couple of engineers and finally figured out what happened. Grumman swore up and down that what happened was impossible because there is a sequence of events (canopy pops, back seat fires, front seat fires) and the pilot WILL NOT get shot through the canopy, let alone leave the RIO behind. The pilot was picked up by the lifeguard ship and suffered cuts and bruises but was otherwise unhurt. They ended up strapping an Airman into a harness and lowering him through the hole in the canopy to pull back the throttle. They tried drowning the engines with the firemain and all they did was make steam. ![]() There it sits, on the wire at full afterburner and nobody knows what to do. He is scared to death to pull his lever because he doesn't know if he will go through the canopy as well AND he cannot reach the throttle. Meanwhile, the RIO has NO idea why the pliot left the airplane. An F-14 Tomcat trapped and the pilot's ejection seat immediately fired him THROUGH the canopy leaving the RIO flashbind and completely unaware what just happened. We were doing night quals to certify the flightdeck during Builder's Trials. Click to expand.Apparently it was not all that difficult to bypass all those safety systems.
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