On Sat, 27 Aug 2011, Sacha wrote:

On 2011-08-27 14:11:53 +0100, Janet Tweedy said:

In article , David Rance
writes

No more than our family. My daughter (RAF padre) and her husband
knew the pilot.
David

Brave man but I did wonder how come his parachute came out without
him?
Most military families feel the loss every time one dies.

The reports aren't in but one theory was a bird-strike and that he'd
tried to use his ejector seat but didn't have enough height for it to
deploy properly. It's a terrible tragedy.

My son-in-law (ex fighter pilot) says that the bird-strike theory is
discounted. His own theory is that the pilot suffered (and I think I've
got this right) "G-lock". At the moment of the manoeuvre he would have
been subjected to a force of 4G and would have temporarily lost
consciousness. A fault with the aircraft is also discounted as none of
the others have been grounded on account of the accident. The force of
the impact would (according to Sean) have caused the ejector seat to
fire anyway.

David

--
David Rance
writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France