poor ejection system
Posted by Bodie the Dog on December 18, 2002 at 11:38:25:
In Reply to: Re: Military Crashes in Saline Valley posted by Possum on December 10, 2002 at 06:57:27:
I stumbled across info on the harrier crash in this weekend's LA Times (12/16/02), from an article on defects in the Harrier and the Marines' attempts to fix them. The article can be found at http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-harrier16dec16.story (registration required).
According to the article, the ejection system had a flaw which prevented ejecting pilots from being able to steer their parachute. Back in 1998, the pilot of this harrier ejected successfully, but died when he hit his head on a rock when landing.