The Most Valuable Asset
A peek into the death-defying ordeals faced by a fighter jet pilot
12:30 a.m.
Her heart beats quickly, and her mind hooks onto visions of the day ahead. She is too excited to sleep.
“Oh, I still can’t believe it! A dry run for the new jet!”
“But what if I fail myself?”
An intangible mix of anxiety and excitement keeps driving her berserk.
“Enough of amusing yourself, Gwen. Tomorrow is a big day, and I should be asleep by now.”
And she shuts her eyes in an attempt to sleep.
06:00 a.m.
The ringing alarm wakes her up. She gets ready to reach the base as quickly as possible. The day she dreamt of has finally arrived. She suits up quickly and goes to the hangar with a bright smile on her face. One look at the jet, and she instantly feels a connection with it. It is an electrifying moment; as if the jet is made just for her.
08:25 a.m.
She settles herself in the cockpit and takes a deep breath to fill her lungs with the fragrance of the jet. She looks around in the cockpit to remember each and every button, knob, and dial. It’s now time for the dry run. She closes her cockpit and takes the jet to the runway. As soon as she gets the green signal, she glides the jet across the runway and takes off smoothly.
After taking off, she feels the sky for some time and starts attempting the basic maneuvers to test the jet. Everything’s working perfectly, for now.
11:06 a.m.
She accelerates quickly until she sees the shockwave from the jet and feels the sonic boom. Going at speeds that break the sound barrier, she performs some tests. Suddenly, she hears a buzzer going off in the cockpit, which indicates a failing engine. In the next moment, she loses control over her jet and goes down. Her mind runs haywire, her heart pounds violently against her chest. She hears three distinct voices from her radio, 42 distinct beeps, and buzzers go off, each indicating something different.
Unable to process the information overload, she pauses. She can feel the immense amount of force hitting her, making her feel as if her toenails are going to pop out. She has to deal with hundreds of buttons, knobs, and dials. Every second she takes to arrive at a decision, she is going meters down and miles away; absolutely not an optimal condition for decision making.
11:28 a.m.
“Population down below! Population down below!” bellows the air traffic controller.
She decides against ejecting. Spotting a free area to crash through the GPS, she glides her jet towards it.
11:35 a.m.
200 Ft. from the ground
It is the now-or-never moment for her. As she reaches the isolated area, she instinctively goes against her previous decision and pulls the lever to eject herself out of the aircraft, which crashes to the ground and is set ablaze.
11:41 a.m.
She lands safely on the ground. However, her mind is still trying to recover from what has just happened. Not knowing how to confront the officials, she treads slowly to the helicopter waiting to pick her up.
Will Gwen be disheartened by this escape from death, and decide to walk away? Is the risk really worth it? After all, she also has her family to look after. Will the officials discipline her for destroying the jet? Whatever awaits Gwen’s fate might never be known. However, it poses an important question:
What holds more asset value — a hard trained pilot, or a multi-million dollar aircraft?
While we’re at it, let’s have a look at what are the most extreme non-combat situations that a pilot faces and what Gwen faced.
Supersonic Speed
When an aircraft goes supersonic, a sonic boom is created by the shock waves, the sound is similar to an explosion or a thunderclap to the human ear. One problem with sustained supersonic flight is the generation of heat in flight. At high speeds aerodynamic heating can occur, so an aircraft must be designed to operate and function under very high temperatures. For example, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird could fly continuously at Mach 3.1 (3828 km/h), which resulted in the temperatures of some parts measuring up to 315°C. Another area of concern is the engine operation at high speeds. Jet engines create thrust by increasing the temperature of the air they ingest, and as the aircraft speeds up, the compression process in the intake causes a temperature rise before the pre-heated air reaches the engine. As the aircraft increases its speed, the difference between the intake and exhaust temperature that the engine can create by burning fuel decreases, as does the thrust.
As in Gwen’s case, she experiences acceleration and change in vectors which change the amount of gravitational force experienced by her. The force experienced by the pilot during the flight is called G-force, which while at supersonic speed is usually equivalent to eight times the normal gravitational force. This is what caused the blood to drain from her head and upper extremities and make her feel as if her toenails were about to pop.
It also hampers the pilot’s vision. The pilot may experience Gray-Out (when the vision loses hue), Tunnel Vision (progressive loss of peripheral vision), Blackout (complete loss of vision), A-LOC (almost loss of consciousness), Red-Out (reddening of vision which drives the lower eyelid into the field of vision), G-LOC (G-force induced loss of consciousness).
We also have countermeasures for them which include anti-g suit, positive pressure breathing (PPB), (theoretically) cockpit design. The anti-g suit comes into action when the G-force is above 2G. It compresses the lower extremities and abdomen using air bladders promoting the return of blood back to the heart and head. PPB works by assisting pilots to maintain oxygenation when G-forces and constricting chest garments work to restrict chest movements and lung expansion.
Once any failure takes place, the next important measure is for the pilot to eject themselves out of the aircraft. It’s often painted as an easy process as simply pulling a lever; that’s it, the pilot’s gonna land safely. In reality, it’s a much more intricate process than that.
Ejection
The modern ejection system is a complex, two-part system. There’s an ejection gun which the pilot activates by pulling a handle. This gets the seat moving up and out of the jet. Moving up a meter or two, the secondary device kicks off, which is basically a rocket directly under the seat. This rocket can take the pilot 100 feet up into the air. Then a tiny drogue parachute pops out of the seat. This parachute is not enough for the pilot to land safely; it just stabilizes the seat so that the seat does not tumble out of control. So when does the main parachute deploy?
If the aircraft is below 10,000 feet, the drogue parachute automatically pulls the main parachute out at the same time as the ejection seat mounting points are disengaged from the pilot’s harness. So the seat falls away and the pilot is left hanging below the main parachute. The whole event is very violent and quick, taking place in less than 3 seconds. If the pilot ejects at higher altitudes like 20,000–30,000 feet, deploying the main chute, it will take about 20 minutes to reach land and the pilot will deplete his oxygen. So, for the pilot, there is a small oxygen bottle attached to the seat.
Even then, there is a 7 percent chance of death, which makes a small number of ejections fatal. About one in three get a spinal fracture.
When the seat is ejected, the gravitational force is 14 to 16 times normal gravity, and it might be applied at 200G per second. The pilots usually encounter neck injuries too, as their heads weigh about 63 kg during ejection. If tilted to any other position than perpendicular, the forces may lead to fatal injuries.
Apart from the risk factors faced by pilots themselves, they also shoulder the responsibility of the safety of the population down below, if any. This makes the decision making even more difficult — a duel to save people’s lives, or their own.
Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT)
Sometimes an aircraft is inadvertently flown into terrain, water body, or an obstacle. The pilots are generally unaware of the danger until it’s too late. What causes a completely capable aircraft and pilot to undergo CFIT?
While there are many reasons for CFIT to happen, including weather conditions and navigation equipment failure, the most common reason is pilot error. Many CFIT accidents occur due to lack of situational awareness, lack of familiarity with the terrain, and the altitude of the aircraft, especially during landing. When a pilot flies the aircraft during the night and under Instrumental Meteorological Conditions (IMC, a condition where due to the weather there is a lack of visual information and the pilot has to fly primarily by reference to instruments) the instruments can misguide the pilot. More than half of CFITs are fatal.
There are some solutions to reduce CFIT. Before the installation of the first electronic warning system, the only defense was pilot simulator training, radar surveillance by air traffic services, and traditional procedures. These only reduce the incidence of CFITs but do not eliminate them.
To further assist the prevention CFITs, manufacturers developed Terrain Awareness and Warning System (TAWS) the first generation of these systems were known as Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS). This system was further enhanced with the addition of a GPS terrain database which is called Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS). There have been other technical solutions to gain situational awareness for the pilot such as making use of moving maps technology, having some space between the aircraft and the terrain, weather or airspace the pilot is trying to avoid, weather graphics, enhanced and synthetic vision, FRAT (Flight Risk Assessment Tools) applications and performance monitors. After the inclusion of these solutions, the CFIT has reduced significantly, drastically increasing the safety of the pilot.
The jet affects both the mind and the body of the pilot. Increased G-force is the hardest part of flying making them feel dizzy. Losing the sense of time and space after doing a few rolls and acrobatic stunts, it also becomes difficult to find the horizon and tell up from down and the body also requires time to evolve to move and change direction at high speeds.
The aftermath of a flight usually results in both mental and physical exhaustion. Feeling nauseous and intrusive memories and flashbacks are common. Even while taking rest, the pilot feels the flashbacks of the increased G-force and flying upside down, feeling as if their body was pushing back at the mattress. Flying a fighter jet is a condensed and fast experience that affects multiple sensory modalities. It usually takes a couple of days for the body and mind to function normally for a first-timer.
These are just a few of the hundreds of fatal circumstances that a pilot may face. That’s why it’s easy to relate with Cougar, in the movie Top Gun, when he gives up his wings citing his newborn child that he has never seen after escaping a hostile confrontation with MiG-28 that might have cost him his life. The pilot crunch faced by countries, even with forces as strong as the US Air Force, is reported quite often. The specialized training not only requires determination of the pilot but also a huge expenditure by the military. Coupling these with the risk factors involved makes the fighter pilots an elite class of defense personnel. In fact, the candidates who have an exceptional academic record, physical fitness, healthy well-being, a strong mental drive, and exhibit strong leadership and teamwork abilities stand a better chance to be selected. Taking all of this into consideration, pilots become the most valuable of all assets possessed by an air force.
12:30 p.m.
Gwen gets off the helicopter and walks towards the base with her shoulders drooping. As she walks with her head looking down, she glances up. To her amazement, she sees her fellow pilots and colleagues in a stance of respect.
As if in an instant, the realization dawns, so does her morale.
Even though she has lost an aircraft, she has saved herself, the most valuable asset.
