I worked on Tornado GR4 Mk10A seats at RAF Lossiemouth for several years between 2006-2015.
I spent a few years in a second line facility carrying out Primary star maintenance of the aircraft which usually involved full replacement of all seats and canopy jettison components. Our small four person team fitted the seats on well over half the GR4 fleet and became expert contortionists lock wiring scores of Jack Head Pistons and Command Eject Controllers.
I witnessed a succesful double ejection in Kandahar in 2009 when a Tornado suffered a sudden loss of power at high speed on the runway. The crew banged out just before the jet ploughed in to an old Soviet mine field at the end of the runway. The noise of the rocket packs screeching like finger nails down a blackboard sticks with me!
Here’s a photo of me after disarming one of those used seats. We had to improvise on that job as normal tools were restricted by bent and buckled parts.
