Quote:
During the critical adjustment of the retention harness for the Martin-Baker MK16 ejection seat in the back seat of the Rafale, the passenger was not cross-checked by ground crew and had not tightened the harness adequately on his own. He had also not donned his G-suit pants correctly and his helmet and oxygen mask were unbuckled. From here, the incident unwound rapidly once the flight began.
According the original French language report translated to English, “Following orders of a regular training mission that involved two other Rafales, the pilot took off and climbed at 47°, generating a load factor of around +4G. Then, as he leveled off, he subjected his passenger to a negative load factor of about -0.6G.” This is where problems from the harness not being tight enough contributed to the accident sequence.”
The translated report went on to reveal, “Discovering the feeling of the negative load factor, the insufficiently strapped and totally surprised passenger held onto the ejector handle and activated it unintentionally.”
So he was shitting his pants before the flight, he wasn’t properly strapped it, and he panicked when he started to get pulled out of his seat.