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Photo Elpidoforos Papanikolopoulos (CC BY 2.0)

Less than three months after the tragedy that cost Jon Egging his life, another pilot of the Red Arrows display team died yesterday. F/L Sean Cunningham was killed yesterday when his ejection seat fired while his aircraft was at a standstill.

Despite the accidental firing of the seat, the pilot should have been able to parachute down to safety but it appears that the parachute never deployed. Sean Cunningham died of his wounds a short time after the incident.

This type of accident is extremely rare but, although modern ejection seats are very effective, they are very complex and potentially dangerous pieces of equipment.

Source

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F/L Jon Egging † (Photo British MoD)

The Daily Mail has run an article suggesting that the crash that killed F/L Jon Egging last Saturday might be due to a total loss of power after a bird strike. The article also suggests that the pilot might not have been able to eject due to excessive G forces as he turned his aircraft away from housing. Read the article on the Daily Mail.

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Photo Elpidoforos Papanikolopoulos (CC BY 2.0)

(Updated Aug 20, 2011 @ 2016): One of the Red Arrows’ aircraft crashed early this afternoon at Bornemouth Air Festival in the UK. It would appear the pilot was able to eject but was killed. The causes of the crash are unknown.

The MoD has confirmed that the pilot involved was F/L Jon Egging, aged 33. Known under the callsign “Eggman” with the Red Arrows, he flew as “Red 4”.

Witness reports at this time give conflicting versions of what happened but photo evidence does seem to show he ejected from the aircraft at low altitude. It appears F/L Egging tried to guide his airplane away from the airfield and any housing, sacrificing his life in an attempt to protect that of others.

Sources:

• Red Arrows website
• The Telegraph
• BBC
• Bournemouth Echo