Ejection -v- Forced Landing

On Fri, 1 Apr 2005 15:44:17 -0800, "Mike Kanze"
wrote:

ISTR - in the course of the discussion re the EP-3 forced landing in China -
some comment to the effect that there has never been a P-3 airframe ditching
that did not involve at least some loss of life. Does a "successful" P-3
airframe ditching mean that at least one soul survived?

In the North Pacific ditch one person was killed on impact (Tank 5
came up through the deck and pinned him to the overhead). I don't
know of casualties in the Persian Gulf incident.

Perhaps we could quibbe over "successful" but if all but one got out
then that would be "successful" (at least as opposed to only one got
out)

Another comment I encountered was that the EP-3 community did not carry
parachutes for some years, reason being that all them antennae protruding
from the fuselage would pretty much shred the first soul out the hatch. I
think this changed some time before the VQ-1 crew painted that Chinese F-8
silhouette on their replacement bird.

Not being familiar with the EP-3 I can't comment.

Bill Kambic