Discussion under the video:
Thekenemy: According to my old Dutch teacher who was a ground crew member for the Belgian Starfighters, the idea was to do this as close to the ground as possible. He claims to have witnessed a horrible crash where the pilot for some reason ejected during this manoeuvre and got launched into the ground. This must have been Cpt. Susse Jacobs. I don’t know whether these f-104’s ejected upwards or downwards. Some internet research suggest there might be footage of this crash, but I can’t find it.
Allessandro Martens: It was indeed Susse Jacobs, who replaced Ongena after his retirement, who was killed while ejecting after a badly performed roll-touch-roll. The downwards ejecting seats were only installed in the early models of the F-104 and owned by the USAF. The rest, wisely, ejected upwards. I have no idea if there’s a video of Jacobs tragic ending. Ciao Alex
Click the YouTube link in the video to see entire conversation.
