The calmness and proper training of Panagiotis Apostolakis proved to save his life when, during a training flight, the F16 Block 52+ warplane developed a problem and crashed yesterday at noon in the sea area off Halkidiki and Alonissos near the island of Psathoura.
The 29-year-old pilot shortly before 13:30 pm on Wednesday found a problem with the engine which, after some interruptions, shut down permanently. Despite the efforts of Panagiotis Apostolakis to restart the engine this was not possible and as a result the pilot abandoned the aircraft using the ejection seat.
In the 110th Fighter Wing, the technicians in charge of the maintenance of the ejection seats know the importance of their work which requires high precision as it has a decisive role in the rescue and survival of the pilot when his options are exhausted, as happened in the case of Panagiotis Apostolakis.
First the 29-year-old adjusted the seat to the proper position to ensure the safest possible ejection. Then and while control of the aircraft was lost, he activated the ejection procedure where initially the canopy of the aircraft was automatically removed. Once the canopy was jettisoned the ejection seat was ejected from the aircraft by rocket engines located on its underside. They gave the necessary thrust so that the pilot and the seat were launched at a distance from the aircraft. Immediately after, the parachute was activated, with which the pilot found himself in the sea, waiting for his rescue for 1,5 hours. The weather conditions were bad and this made it difficult for the Super Puma to approach. However, almost throughout his time at sea, on the lifeboat included in the survival kit of pilots who have used the emergency mechanism, the pilot had intermittent communication with rescue crews.
"The operator of the F-16 Block 52+ aircraft of the 337th Squadron of the 110th Fighter Wing, which crashed in the Psathoura maritime area, on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, was picked up alive at 15:02 by a Super Puma helicopter of the 130th Fighter Wing, Air Force Base and is headed to the 251st Air Force General Hospital," the Air Force General Staff's second statement said.
The 29-year-old, who is expected to be discharged today, is in good health and was transferred to 251 GNA for preventive reasons, undergoing all the necessary tests. At his side is his father who came from Larissa to Athens as soon as he was informed of his child's accident.
The Minister of National Defence, Nikos Dendias, expressed his wishes for a speedy recovery to the pilot in a post on X: "We express our most sincere wishes for a speedy return to his duties, to the pilot of the F-16 fighter aircraft of the Air Force, who landed today in the sea area of the Aegean. Congratulations to those who participated in the successful and speedy rescue operation."
The Minister of National Defense informed in a new post that he had a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart, Yasar Guler, who expressed his satisfaction for the rescue of the Greek pilot of the F-16. In particular, in a related post on X, the following is stated: "The Minister of National Defense of Turkey, Yasar Guler, communicated to us his satisfaction with the successful outcome of the rescue operation of the pilot of the F-16 fighter aircraft of the Greek Air Force, as well as his best wishes to him. For my part, I thanked my counterpart for his sincere interest in the Greek pilot."
Now the Accident Investigation Board set up by the Air Force will look for the causes that caused the downing of the F-16. The testimony of the 29-year-old sergeant major is expected to shed light on the clarification of the case.
The history of bouncy seats
The idea of a seat that would be ejected together with the pilot in case of an emergency, as was done yesterday with Lt. Col. Panagiotis Apostolakis, had been tested as early as 1912 when the first test of a type of seat ejected from an airplane in flight with the help of a cannon was made in Paris as reported by the website 360aviationworld.com. However, the starting point of the technological foundation and development of the idea of the first generation of ejection seats is the Second World War and in a wider sense the 1940s.
In 1941 the studies were completed and in 1942 the Swedish SAAB manufactures the Type 1/21 ejection seat, tests it successfully and equips the SAAB J21 monoplane with it. Then applying various improvements with the most important one focusing on the tilting of the seat back at an angle of 30º he built the Type 2/29 and fitted the SAAB J21R jets the J29 as well as the J-210 forerunner of the later SAAB J-35 Draken. The backward tilt was intended on the one hand to reduce the frontal surface during ejection, and on the other hand to improve the operator's resistance to acceleration loads.
Indicative of how serious studies were done in Sweden at the time on the subject, is the fact that the same technology was used three decades later in the ACES II seat of the American Douglas that "wears" most American-made airplanes, including the F16. The upgrades included a switch to using explosives to propel the seat, The Type 2/29 was ejected by the thrust of the gases from detonating 60 grams of explosives, inside a fuze tube of some sort, in three stages. This idea was not far from the corresponding future systems of other manufacturers.
Although the seat was originally designed to be ejected by pulling a strap placed at the operator's shoulders, the design was changed to use the curtain system, which we will see below and on the Martin-Baker seats. Alternatively, another handle was placed between the operator's thighs which, by pulling it, activated the firing and ejection system. The advantage of this dual arrangement is that whether negative G is received by the operator or positive, one hand will reach some grip on the escape pull.
Two more important changes perfected the type 2 compared to the type 1. One was the addition of two "shoes" where the feet rested so as to avoid injuries due to violent swinging of the lower limbs during the ejection. The second was that the operator had the parachute applied to his back and not on the seat as in other designs. This resulted in faster separation from the seat. More generally, the philosophy of the SAAB seat was that once the seat is ejected the occupant is immediately removed. Successful separation also relied on the addition of a mechanism that deployed a sort of "apron" that was activated by the central seat belts after ejection.
The "apron" that was in the angle formed by the back and the seat of the seat was suddenly stretched (it was the hypotenuse of the triangle of back and seat) and literally violently pushed the operator from the seat. Then when the operator moved away from the seat he would open the parachute either manually or wait for the automatic barometric opening device to operate.
On the other hand, the German aviation industry claims that it was the pioneer in the use of ejection seats during World War II, with which, as its sources claim, about 60 German pilots were saved. However, there are no official historical records, possibly lost in the wake of the end of the war and the subsequent disasters, but there are many unofficial historical facts that if taken into account support the view that the Germans in this area of the aviation industry were also in advanced stages. This is absolutely confirmed by the fact that post-war both American and Soviet ejection seats were based on German designs and research. However, the only official historical record, mentions the name of a pilot Helmut Schenck who ejected from a prototype Heinkel He 280 V1 on January 13, 1943.
Seat launch steps in detail
Preparation: Before ejection, the seat is adjusted to the proper position to ensure the safest possible exit for the pilot and to optimize the ejection trajectory.
Activation: The ejection process can be initiated either manually by the pilot or automatically by various sensors within the aircraft. These sensors may detect situations such as imminent aircraft destruction, loss of control, or other emergencies.
Canopy Rejection: The aircraft canopy is automatically removed as part of the ejection sequence.
Booster rockets: Once the canopy is jettisoned, the ejection seat is launched from the aircraft by rocket engines located on its underside. These engines provide the necessary thrust to eject the seat and pilot away from the aircraft.
Parachute deployment: After ejection, the parachute system is automatically activated to slow the pilot's descent. This helps ensure a safe landing, even if ejection occurs at high speeds and altitudes.
Survival equipment: The seats have built-in survival equipment, such as oxygen supplies, communication devices and survival kits, to help the pilot survive after ejection.
Post-Ejection Procedures: After ejection, the pilot must follow established procedures to assist in rescue. This may include activating emergency beacons and beacons to enable search and rescue teams to locate him.
Source: protothema.gr