What happens to your body when you eject from a plane?

Firing of ejection gun: spinal injuries. Entering airflow: wind blast may cause lung damage; seat tumbles at variable speed, which may be as high as 180 rpm. (All seats have a drogue parachute or deployable aerodynamic panels to prevent tumbling); flail injuries to extremities. Parachute deployment: snatch injuries.



People Also Ask

Ejection is an important way for pilots to escape planes in case of emergency, but the incidence of injury accompanying ejection escape is also very high[1-3].

MORE DETAILS

There's no fixed number – each individual is unique, as is the ejection that they endure. After ejection, a pilot will be given a full medical evaluation and it is down to that medical professional to advise whether it is recommended that the pilot continues to fly or not.

MORE DETAILS

Each phase of the ejection sequence is associated with characteristic injury patterns and of particular concern is the occurrence of spinal compression fractures, which are caused by the upward acceleration of the ejection seat.

MORE DETAILS

Not true. I flew with a pilot that had ejected three times. Weirdly, I was with him (in another A-7) on two of those occasions. All three ejections occurred at slow speeds.

MORE DETAILS

In our evaluation we found that ejection seat evacuation is associated with a relatively high incidence of spinal injuries. Overall, 56.3% of aircrew members in our evaluation had some form of spine injuries, such as a contusion. In total, 33.0% even experienced a spine fracture.

MORE DETAILS

In TV and movies, a fighter pilot ejecting from their jet comes across as a cut-and-dry procedure. In reality, the process is complicated, violent, and leaves most pilots with severe injuries. About 20% to 30% of fighter pilots experience some sort of spinal fracture as a result.

MORE DETAILS

Six pilots have ejected at speeds exceeding 700 knots (1,300 km/h; 810 mph). The highest altitude at which a Martin-Baker seat was deployed was 57,000 ft (17,400 m) (from a Canberra bomber in 1958).

MORE DETAILS