Slovenian Air Force PC-9 copilot made unplanned eject

In what initially seemed like a bizarre incident that happened in the morning of March 10th, a copilot of Slovenian Army Air Defence and Air Force Brigade (BRZOL - Brigada Zracne Obrambe in Letalstva) Pilatus PC-9 turboprop plane made an unplanned eject while flying on route from Sevnice to its home base Cerklje ob Krki. The copilot Robert Jerina, who was attending an advanced flying course, ejected at a high of around 3.000 meters following what he landed safely with his parachute. Having suffered small injuries, copilot Jerina was immediately located and transported to the nearest health center aboard Slovenian Army helicopter. Meanwhile, the pilot that remained in the cockpit managed to safely return the damaged plane to Cerklje ob Krki air base.

Commenting the event on a press conference that was held only hours after the incident, the Chief of the General Staff of the Slovenian Army, general Albin Gutman, said that the accident is already being examined by the Ministry of Defence investigation commission, which will be assisted by Slovenian civil aviation experts. Quoting Slovenian Army sources, "Delo" reported that investigation commission currently examines all possible scenarios, including technical problems and human error. Commenting the incident for the Slovenian daily "Delo", copilot Robert Jerina said that he can not explain what happened and how his Martin Baker Mk.SA11A activated.

Immediately after the incident Slovenian Army grounded its entire fleet of eleven PC-9 turboprops that are operational with the Ceklje-based Aviation School that is directly subordinated to the Air Defence and Air Force Brigade. Slovenian PC-9s will remain grounded until the investigation commission comes out with answer what has caused the March 10th incident that happened exactly four years after another Slovenian Army PC-9 (serial L9-52, c/n 181) crashed during training flight and killed the pilot who previously suffered a heart attack.

For advanced flying as well as for conducting air-to-ground fire support operations, Slovenian Army currently uses two PC-9 and nine PC-9M Hudournik turboprop planes. All PC-9Ms have been modernized in the late nineties by Radom Aviation Systems of Israel and equipped with HOTAS, NVG, HUD as well as armed with 12.7mm machine gun pods, Mk 81/82 bombs and LAU-7/19A pods for firing 70mm unguided rockets.