Page 308 - Demo

304fire warning had gone off. I replied no but when you listen to the cockpit voice recorder it came on almost instantly. I was clearly in shock and suffered from tunnel vision. I cannot remember looking at the standard warning panel that must have been lit up like a Christmas tree. The vibration was so bad that the accident data recorder failed after 8 seconds by which time I was asking for Dode to switch the radio to guard which is an emergence frequency that is constantly monitored, had shut the engine down and decided that we were going to eject. The PSP contained various survival aids including a dinghy. It formed the seat of the ejector seat and so we sat on it. During the ejection sequence the pilot and the pack separated from the seat. As it was connected to the parachute harness it hung just below your backside during the parachute descent. It could break your legs if you landed on it and so you released it from the harness, but it remained connected to the life preserver by a lanyard. You made sure of this connection before releasing it from the parachute harness. The parachute drill was to firstly to check the parachute was not twisted in some way. A quick glance up showed it was fine. Then I should have taken off my oxygen mask, but this had fallen off during the ejection when my face hit my lap. This damaged the tendons in my back which was why it hurt. The next thing should have been to inflate the life preserver. This gave added support around the neck when you hit the ground and also activated the homing beacon. I think as my mask was not on, I missed this action and went straight to the PSP connector. The reason my face hit my lap was that I had not locked my harness. The harness should have been locked for the spinning, but I only locked it for take-off and landing. After that it was on an inertia reel which meant that I could move the top of my body around. If you were held too tightly into the seat you could not look out properly and I was always more worried about a mid-air collision than anything else. The important straps to tighten were the ones around your thighs and I had