A pensioner who was given a surprise flight in a £70million fighter jet as a retirement present was flung out at 2,500ft after grabbing the ejector seat handle to ‘steady himself’.

The drama is outlined in a newly released report by French aviation investigators which at times reads like a dark comedy script, as it describes how the unidentified 64-year-old panicked during his first flight in the Rafale-B.

Then he shot out at high speed, losing his helmet that had not been fastened round his chin properly, before landing in a field close to the German border.

His anti-g force suit, worn by aviators who are subject to high acceleration forces and designed to prevent a blackout, had also become loose.

It was only through good fortune that the pilot was not ejected by his passenger’s actions, so ensuring a certain crash.

The pensioner had ‘never expressed a desire to take part in a flight like this, and especially not in a Rafale,’ reads the report by the Paris-based BEA (Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis).

Despite this, his colleagues at the defence contractor where he had worked, set up the flight at the Saint-Dizier airforce base, in north-west France.

‘The need to keep the surprise until the moment of the flight,’ had hugely risky consequences, especially as regards ‘preparation for the flight,’ reads the report.