An unwilling and unwitting passenger in a high-performance fighter accidentally pulled the ejection handle during a retirement “gift” flight in France a little more than a year ago, triggering an investigation that revealed a sloppy approach to conducting familiarization flights. As we reported last March, the man suffered back injuries when he mistakenly launched from a French Air Force Rafale after takeoff from Saint-Dizier 113 air base in eastern France on March 20, 2019. Early reports said he was a journalist on a familiarization flight but he was actually the reluctant recipient of a farewell flight when he retired from a French defense contractor. According to a translation of the air force’s report on the mishap, the terrified pensioner was not only personally unprepared for the flight, he was not properly strapped in or dressed and that contributed to the incident.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/reluctant-poorly-prepared-passenger-ejected-from-rafale