The Ejection Site

Emergency Ejections occur dozens of times a year around the world, but rarely in sight of a person, let alone one with a camera. Of the tens of thousands of ejections since seats were invented in the 1930s, perhaps a few hundred have been photographed. Most of those were in the Naval Aviation area as that is one of the most dangerous flight regimes, and a carrier may often have cameras on board.

The following pictures are among the rare few that have been taken, and have been released for public viewing.

ThunderBird 6 Ejection F-16 2003 CAPT Chris Stricklin ejects from ThunderBird 6 at Mountain Home AFB. Updated with details from COL Stricklin

F-8 Inadvertant Ejection F-8 Crusader 1963 Series of photos of an F-8 runway overrun accident. The pilot was saved by a thin strand of wire in a strange twist of fate. Thanks to Thomas O'Rorke and the VMF-235 web page for use of these photographs.

Phantom over Vietnam F-4B Phantom II - 1967 A combat photograph of a Phantom WSO ejecting over Vietnam

Crusader over the Angle F8U-1 Crusader - 1961 Ejecting off the deck. A landing gear failure has consigned this F8U-1 to the deep sea, but the pilot can make it out.

Zero-Zero: the nightmare scenerio test F-106 Ejection seat - 1965 Weber Aircraft built a zero airspeed/zero altitude ejection seat. Jim Hall got to prove it worked!