Ejection seats on civil aircraft

[Johnny_L.A]

Yesterday a Czech L-39 training jet went missing over eastern Washginton. ISTR that the FAA banned ejection seats in civilly registered aircraft back in the 1980s. I don’t remember their reasons, but I assume they wanted to ensure that pilots didn’t capriciously punch out of their aircraft over populated areas. If that was the reason, I can see two scenarios: First, no pilot is willingly going to eject out of of an aircraft that may have cost him a couple millions of dollars (the Soviet Bloc aircraft are considerably cheaper); or Second, some pilots may risk life and limb and eject to collect the insurance.

The pilot of the L-39 radioed that he was having “control problems” just before he disappeared from radar. Seems like a couple of ejection seats may have been useful.

Do I remember correctly that the FAA banned ejection seats? If so, is the ban still in effect, and could a pilot get a waiver to legally have an ejection seat?

[mks57]

See http://www.l39.com/Ejection%20seats.htm

HERE’S THE SCOOP ON EJECTION SEATS!
Ejection seats are authorized by the FAA. In order to legally have HOT seats, the seats MUST be maintained according to the manufacture recommendations.
We (Czech Jet) have been to Czechoslovakia and received certification for attending one of Aero Vodochody’s courses on the L39 ejection seat and canopy. We have the specialized tooling and test fixtures for performing the many tests on the seats and canopies, to ensure their operation.