Suicide by Ejection Seat
Tim Lindell
I've heard legends my entire Air Force career of some maintenance guy
getting depressed, climbing into the seat of a fighter aircraft parked
in a hangar, and pulling the ejection handle, splattering himself all
over the ceiling of the hangar.
Did this ever actually happen?
Tim Lindell
RAF Mildenhall, UK
Michael Kelly
Tim Lindell (t...@lindell.dungeon.com) wrote:
: I've heard legends my entire Air Force career of some maintenance guy
Shrug. I recall a legend at Ramstien AB of a similiar nature.
Apparently, a newbie maintenance puke was playing in a F4 that was parked
in a hardened hanger. He somehow activated the ejection seat and they had
to power wash him off the ceiling. The legend says that when it rains,
you can see the blood stains.
D. Charles Shiderly
>I've heard legends my entire Air Force career of some maintenance guy
>getting depressed, climbing into the seat of a fighter aircraft parked
>in a hangar, and pulling the ejection handle, splattering himself all
>over the ceiling of the hangar.
>
>Did this ever actually happen?
>
>Tim Lindell
>RAF Mildenhall, UK
>
I have a friend who worked in the Navy as an avionics technician, and
he once told me a similar story of another tech who was working on an
A-4 and accidentally pulled the ejection seat release and was blown
into the top of the hanger. The guy left a nasty bend in one of the
support girders.
Spectre Gunner
On Tue, 30 Jul 1996 02:18:58 GMT, dcha...@iadfw.net (D. Charles
Shiderly) posted:
I never heard of an F4 ever being pulled into a hangar without the
seat being safety pinned. It was a checklist item.
~~~~~~~~
Frank Vaughan / Spectre Gunner
|
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--==========O=========O========/ 0000 \========O=========O==========--
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0 00 0
USAF 16th Special Operations Squadron 71-72
Better living through superior firepower!
Alan Horowitz
I have a co-worker who saw it happen at Co Phat AFB in Vietnam. He
presumes it was an accident.
He says the grease stains on the ceiling never went away.
DAVEL00MIS
When I was at Holloman AFB in the early 60s there was the story going
around about an airman who took his girlfriend into one of the maintenance
hangers to show her what he did for a living. He climbed into an unnamed
jet fighter (Holloman was the AF Missile Development and Test Center - and
had many different jets on station) ans started pointing out the various
bells and whistles to his admiring friend. When she asked what the two
large yellow handles were, he is alleged to have grabbed one, pulled, and
slammed himself into the overhead steel girders and roof.
Being young and naive at the time I never questioned, 1. the
possibility of getting a non-cleared civilian female into a restricted
area, 2. the possibility of a young airman with guest in tow not being
challenged by any and all in the area, or 3. the probability of a still
un-pinned ejection seat in any aircraft undergoing maintenance.
It does make a nice story, with several obvious morals.
Dave
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Wayne Dernoncourt
In article <31fd7075...@news.iadfw.net>,
dcha...@iadfw.net (D. Charles Shiderly) wrote:
> I have a friend who worked in the Navy as an avionics
> technician, and he once told me a similar story of another
> tech who was working on an A-4 and accidentally pulled the
> ejection seat release and was blown into the top of the
> hanger. The guy left a nasty bend in one of the support
> girders.
I once saw a message (20 odd years ago) about some Marines
(plane captains) had just come back from the rifle range - it
had rained recently, so they had muddy boots. One of the guys
started to get in the cockpit and he started to slip -- he
reached for the closest support -- the rings. He wasn't all of
the way in the aircraft, when the seat went off, he was pushed
out of the aircraft, broke a couple of bones (leg?), he also
landed on the bayonet(?? from memory -- could be faulty). When
the seat cleared the hangar, the other Marines returning from
the range started shooting at the seat. When they recovered the
seat, they found holes in it (all Marines are rifleman!).
--
Take care | This clown speaks for himself, his job doesn't
Wayne D. | pay for this, etc. (directly anyway)
Michael Kelly
Wayne Dernoncourt (way...@cpcug.org) wrote:
: In article <31fd7075...@news.iadfw.net>,
This sounds a little dubious. If the guy had come back from the range,
he would have had to go back to the base and return his weapon before he
could do anything else. At least he'd have to clean the gun first. And I
don't think I can recall of anyone marching back from the rifle range
with fixed bayonets. And the other Marines shooting at an ejected seat
traveling at something like 100mph and hitting it? That's got to be a
heck of a target lead. ( Soldiers manual; Lead ejection seats by
estimating distance as 3 city buses. :)
<G> I'm not flaming you buddy. Just pointing out some things.
R. Martin Caskey
On 6 Aug 1996, Michael Kelly wrote:
[snip]
> This sounds a little dubious. If the guy had come back from the range,
> he would have had to go back to the base and return his weapon before he
> could do anything else. At least he'd have to clean the gun first.
~~~
AAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your are now in serious trouble!!
You are herewith ORDERED to promptly report to the parade grounds where
you will take up a position in the most prominent available
location and engage, for a period of FOUR HOURS, in the following
discplinary exercise:
* Assume the Port Arms position
* Shout "This is my rifle!" whilst thrusting the weapon forward
* Shout "And this is my gun!" whilst grabbing your crotch
* Shout "This is for fighting!" whilst again thrusting the weapon
* Shout "And this is for fun!" whilst once again grabbing crotch
Repeat.
:-)
Martin Caskey
Towson, Maryland
Colin Campbell
tu...@gatecoms.gatecom.com (Michael Kelly) wrote:
> This sounds a little dubious. If the guy had come back from the range,
>he would have had to go back to the base and return his weapon before he
>could do anything else. At least he'd have to clean the gun first. And I
>don't think I can recall of anyone marching back from the rifle range
>with fixed bayonets. And the other Marines shooting at an ejected seat
>traveling at something like 100mph and hitting it? That's got to be a
>heck of a target lead. ( Soldiers manual; Lead ejection seats by
>estimating distance as 3 city buses. :)
Another suspicious note is the fact that they left the range with live
ammo. Not Done in the real military.
Michael Kelly
R. Martin Caskey (rmca...@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us) wrote:
: On 6 Aug 1996, Michael Kelly wrote:
: [snip]
: > This sounds a little dubious. If the guy had come back from the range,
: > he would have had to go back to the base and return his weapon before he
: > could do anything else. At least he'd have to clean the gun first.
: ~~~
: AAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
: Your are now in serious trouble!!
: You are herewith ORDERED to promptly report to the parade grounds where
: you will take up a position in the most prominent available
: location and engage, for a period of FOUR HOURS, in the following
: discplinary exercise:
:
: * Assume the Port Arms position
: * Shout "This is my rifle!" whilst thrusting the weapon forward
: * Shout "And this is my gun!" whilst grabbing your crotch
: * Shout "This is for fighting!" whilst again thrusting the weapon
: * Shout "And this is for fun!" whilst once again grabbing crotch
: Repeat.
: :-)
: Martin Caskey
: Towson, Maryland
Laugh, get bit. I was in the Air Force Security Police. As it goes, "
It aint a weapon till you use it on someone!".
Hee hee. I only saw someone run around like that once, at tech
school, when repeated efforts to convince the guy his M16 was really a
weapon.
OBMilFolkHumor;
3 Generals, An Army general, an Air Force General and a Marine General
are having an arguement about which service has the most "Balls".
They are walking through the base when the Army General sees a column
of tanks rolling down the street. He calls out to a nearby soldier and
yells, "Soldier! Stop those tanks!". The Soldier runs in front of the
column and assumes a "Road Guard" position, yells halt and is promptly
squished. "That, gentlemen, takes Balls" beamed the proud Army General.
Not to be outdone, the Marine General sees a Marine walking towards
them. He orders the marine to "Climb to the top of that flag pole and
deploy from the top of it". The marine climbs to the top of the flag pole
and jumps off it, splatting all over the pavement. "Now gentlemen, tell
me that doesn't take balls!" says the Marine General.
The Air Force general just smiles. He looks around and sees an Airman
walking down the street with his hands in his pockets. "Airman! Get those
hands out of your pockets!" He yells. The airman stops, turns, and says,
"Fuuuuck You!" And gives the General the Finger.
The Air Force General turns to his shocked companions and says, " Now
THAT takes balls!"
Wayne Dernoncourt
In article <320824c...@news.vividnet.com>,
co...@vividnet.com (Colin Campbell) wrote:
> tu...@gatecoms.gatecom.com (Michael Kelly) wrote:
> >This sounds a little dubious. If the guy had come back from
> >the range, he would have had to go back to the base and
> >return his weapon before he could do anything else. At
> >can recall of anyone marching back from the rifle range
> >with fixed bayonets. And the other Marines shooting at an
> >ejected seat traveling at something like 100mph and hitting
> >it? That's got to be a heck of a target lead. ( Soldiers
> >manual; Lead ejection seats by estimating distance as 3
> >city buses. :)
> Another suspicious note is the fact that they left the range
> with live ammo. Not Done in the real military.
I tried to find a copy of the message ... and couldn't. That was from
memory -- I didn't believe some of what I wrote, but since it was
from memory. If the marines were in a combat zone, do they still
have target practice? I'm sure now, they get live rounds when they
enter the rifle range, and give back unexpended shells when they
leave. Under methods used to prevent a recurrence, I think the
author put down boot scrappers.
I'm going to keep looking for the copy of the message (I'm sure I
kept a copy) -- unless the villains from the X-files have gone
through my files.<g>
Glenn Dowdy
Michael Kelly wrote:
<previous humor deleted>
> He looks around and sees an Airman
> walking down the street with his hands in his pockets. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Also known as Air Force gloves.
Glenn
Michael Kelly
Glenn Dowdy (glenn...@hp-spokane-om2.om.hp.com) wrote:
: Michael Kelly wrote:
: <previous humor deleted>
: Glenn
laff!
Wolf
tu...@gatecoms.gatecom.com (Michael Kelly) wrote:
>Tim Lindell (t...@lindell.dungeon.com) wrote:
>: I've heard legends my entire Air Force career of some maintenance guy
>: getting depressed, climbing into the seat of a fighter aircraft parked
>: in a hangar, and pulling the ejection handle, splattering himself all
>: over the ceiling of the hangar.
>: Did this ever actually happen?
>: Tim Lindell
>: RAF Mildenhall, UK
> Shrug. I recall a legend at Ramstien AB of a similiar nature.
>Apparently, a newbie maintenance puke was playing in a F4 that was parked
>in a hardened hanger. He somehow activated the ejection seat and they had
>to power wash him off the ceiling. The legend says that when it rains,
>you can see the blood stains.
My Gosh I've heard this story!! From an SP I worked with on a TDY
while I was in Germany.
/ \ / \
/ \____/ \
: : : : Wolf Http://www.chtree.com/per/WOLF
\ (@) __ (@) / mailto:Wo...@chtree.com
\ /\ /
: : There are more things in Heaven and
\/::\/ Earth and on the internet...
-- Then are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Michael Kelly
: > Shrug. I recall a legend at Ramstien AB of a similiar nature.
: >Apparently, a newbie maintenance puke was playing in a F4 that was parked
: >in a hardened hanger. He somehow activated the ejection seat and they had
: >to power wash him off the ceiling. The legend says that when it rains,
: >you can see the blood stains.
: My Gosh I've heard this story!! From an SP I worked with on a TDY
: while I was in Germany.
Well, so like where were you TDY to? With my tendency to gab, I mighta
been the guy...<G>
Joe Citro
tu...@gatecoms.gatecom.com (Michael Kelly) writes:
I don't know if your story is true or not, but I can verify that such a
suicide did occur. In the early 70s, I was stationed at Seymour Johnson
AFB, North Carolina. I was working B-52s. I was driving an expeditor
truck when I heard an explosion from across the ramp where the F-4s
were. Moments later I saw the fire trucks and ambulances coming. Being
a curious sort, I drove as close as I could to the scene. I saw the
medics take a body from the right wing root of the aircraft - and I saw
the head roll off of the body. It turned out that it was a maintenance
guy (not a crew chief) who was despondent over some marital troubles. He
climbed into the F-4, closed the canopy, removed the ejection seat safety
pins and pulled the ejection handle. He went through the canopy and hit
the rafters in the hangar. He came down and bounced off of the fuselage
and landed in the wing root. I was an eye witness and I can still picture
the scene in my mind. I don't think I'll ever forget it.
Joe Citro
CMSgt (Ret) USAF
Spectre Gunner
A nervous hush fell over the crowd, as they anticipated the
announcement. Finally, jci...@gonix.com (Joe Citro) stepped to the
podium and said:
>
> I don't know if your story is true or not, but I can verify that such a
> suicide did occur. In the early 70s, I was stationed at Seymour Johnson
> AFB, North Carolina. I was working B-52s. I was driving an expeditor
> truck when I heard an explosion from across the ramp where the F-4s
> were. Moments later I saw the fire trucks and ambulances coming. Being
> a curious sort, I drove as close as I could to the scene. I saw the
> medics take a body from the right wing root of the aircraft - and I saw
> the head roll off of the body. It turned out that it was a maintenance
> guy (not a crew chief) who was despondent over some marital troubles. He
> climbed into the F-4, closed the canopy, removed the ejection seat safety
> pins and pulled the ejection handle. He went through the canopy and hit
> the rafters in the hangar. He came down and bounced off of the fuselage
> and landed in the wing root. I was an eye witness and I can still picture
> the scene in my mind. I don't think I'll ever forget it.
>
>
> Joe Citro
> CMSgt (Ret) USAF
Joe:
I'm not disputing you, however, I seem to recall from all of the "seat
safety" classes I took on the F-4, that it is what is know as a
zero/zero seat, meaning it will eject you safely az zero knots forward
speed and zero feet altitude. The seat will only function if the
canopy is full open or full closed, nothing in between.
When the seat fires, and the canopy is not full open, it is blown off,
and thus, sitting in an aircraft (either on the ramp or in a hangar)
it is virtually impossible to be blown through the canopy unless there
is a secondary malfunction.
The above notwithstanding, I believe your report. Despondant young
airmen tned to do some pretty stupid things. I recall at Patrick AFB
in florida (deemed by many to be the ultimate dream assignment) we
went through three suicides in about a 45 day period -- totally
unrelated other than the first one probably planted the seed in the
minds of the other two.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Frank Vaughan "Spectre Gunner"
Vietnam Veteran -- AC-130E Spectre Gunships
16th Special Operations Squadron (USAF)
"We were winning when I left."
Visit my spectre Gunship Tribute page at: http://www.netcom.com/~baguio/spectre.html
Jay Craswell
I think I was around a few says after this happened. It was supposed to be
at Glenview NAS. The story was that some dope wanted to impress his girl
by having her snap a photo of him sitting in the seat of some Jet fighter.
The seat was too low and he tried moving it back (or whatever) by pulling
the seat "adjusters". Yes the yellow handles. Well Kapow he slams into the
roof of the hanger and his girl comes in with the camera. Hello?.......
Where did you go pumpkin? DUH!
--
73, Jay WB0VNE - AAV5TH
ridef...@gmail.com
> tu...@gatecoms.gatecom.com (Michael Kelly) writes:
>
> >Wolf (Wo...@chtree.com) wrote:
> >: tu...@gatecoms.gatecom.com (Michael Kelly) wrote:
>
>
> >: > Shrug. I recall a legend at Ramstien AB of a similiar nature.
> >: >Apparently, a newbie maintenance puke was playing in a F4 that was parked
> >: >in a hardened hanger. He somehow activated the ejection seat and they had
> >: >to power wash him off the ceiling. The legend says that when it rains,
> >: >you can see the blood stains.
>
> >: My Gosh I've heard this story!! From an SP I worked with on a TDY
> >: while I was in Germany.
>
>
> > Well, so like where were you TDY to? With my tendency to gab, I mighta
> >been the guy...<G>
>
>
> suicide did occur. In the early 70s, I was stationed at Seymour Johnson
> AFB, North Carolina. I was working B-52s. I was driving an expeditor
> truck when I heard an explosion from across the ramp where the F-4s
> were. Moments later I saw the fire trucks and ambulances coming. Being
> a curious sort, I drove as close as I could to the scene. I saw the
> medics take a body from the right wing root of the aircraft - and I saw
> the head roll off of the body. It turned out that it was a maintenance
> guy (not a crew chief) who was despondent over some marital troubles. He
> climbed into the F-4, closed the canopy, removed the ejection seat safety
> pins and pulled the ejection handle. He went through the canopy and hit
> the rafters in the hangar. He came down and bounced off of the fuselage
> and landed in the wing root. I was an eye witness and I can still picture
> the scene in my mind. I don't think I'll ever forget it.
>
>
> Joe Citro
> CMSgt (Ret) USAF
brian...@gmail.com
brian...@gmail.com
harle...@gmail.com
> I was there dude and can't forget that seen I relive it dream about it wake in a cool sweat it was terrible please contact me 865-314-4445 Brian
savann...@gmail.com
Paul Cotter
Off-topic a bit as it wasn't a suicide attempt.