Inte bara Gripen har problem med sina Martin Baker katapultstolar. Kommer ni ihåg kraschen i Vidsel 2008 där ett felaktigt designat utskjutningshandtag ledde till att piloten sköts ut ofrivilligt?Nu har Eurofighter råkat ut för problem med sin katapultstol.
Flightglobal reports that the Eurofighter grounding resulted from an incident last month in which a Saudi pilot was killed after ejecting from a jet operating from Morón airbase in Spain. It's thought that a fault in the design of the Martin Baker seat meant that the Saudi's parachute separated from his harness during the ejection so that he subsequently fell to his death.
Other Eurofighter nations including Germany and Italy also grounded their fighters, though Germany was able to fall back on some remaining veteran F-4 Phantoms to step into the Typhoons' place. The RAF, having now stood down its preceding Tornado F3s, had no operational fighters apart from the Spitfire and Hurricane flown by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
Det blir intressant att se när Spitfire återigen lyfter till skyarna över Storbritanien för att bevaka gränserna...
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