Russia-Ukraine latest: Italian fighter jets intercept ‘Russian planes’ over Baltic Sea;

By Sean Bell, military analyst

The dynamic video of a Russian fighter jet’s final moments before plunging into the Black Sea off the coast of Sevastopol brought back memories of my own experience ejecting from a burning jet over 30 years ago.

The Russian fighter appears to have been shot down, with the aircraft in flames and falling like a leaf through the skies before exploding in the Black Sea. 

The Russian pilot was reported to have ejected from his stricken jet, and was recovered later from the waters.

My own experience was less dramatic – I was not shot down – but no less dynamic!

I was flying an air combat training mission over Germany in an RAF Harrier GR5 fighter jet at around 15,000ft in 1991 when around half of the more than 100 warning lights in the cockpit illuminated. 

Unbeknown to me, a fire had broken out in one of the major electrical looms, which was gradually spreading from behind my cockpit into the depths of the engine bay.  

The Harrier’s single engine was electrically controlled, and as the fire destroyed the digital control unit, the engine wound down.

Military fighter jets do not glide well – and despite every effort to get the engine started again, when the ground rushes up to meet you it is time to “pull the handle” and eject.

The moment you do so you set off a chain of carefully choreographed automated events that get the pilot under a deployed parachute in approximately one second.

In the Harrier, the canopy explodes and a powerful explosion pushes the ejection seat through the debris.  

A rocket pack fires that pushes the ejection seat further away from the stricken aircraft, before the parachute is deployed, the seat falls away, and the pilots swings below the deployed chute.

The moment you pull the handle is engrained on your memory – you have sat on ejection seats your whole flying career, but now your life depends on it working, and quickly.

The pilot is also thrown from the calm comfort of the cockpit into a 300mph airstream, before the parachute violently halts them.

I opened my eyes, which had been tightly closed for the ejection sequence to avoid any debris, in time to see the jet hit the German countryside. 

A few seconds later I landed at the same speed you would expect form jumping off a double-decker bus – not elegantly as you expect from films.

Like the Russian pilot, I was recovered shortly afterwards, before heading to the medical centre to have a few wounds stitched up. 

Although I sustained a few knocks and cuts from the ejection, I was cleared to fly again two weeks later.

My ejection marked the 4,428th life saved by a seat manufactured by British company Martin Baker – which has since risen to 7,700.