(CNN) — A man who was terrified by his retirement gift from co-workers — a ride in a fighter jet — grabbed the ejector handle in a panic and was launched through the skies 2,500 feet above the ground, says the official government report on the incident.

The ride on March 20, 2019, had been arranged as a surprise gift to the 64-year-old man, who was leaving his job at a French defense contractor. His co-workers took him to the Saint-Dizier air base, 100 miles east of Paris, and announced he would be flying in a Dassault Rafale B.

The man had never expressed any desire to fly in a fighter jet and had no military aviation experience, said the report by investigators for France’s aviation safety agency.

Once he realized what his co-workers had planned, he began to feel extremely stressed, the report said. Before he even got into the plane, his watch’s heart monitor was recording his pulse at 140 beats per minute — “full tachycardia,” the investigators described it. A normal resting heartbeat is 60 to 100 beats per minute.

Still, “feeling social pressure,” the man climbed into the rear of the plane’s two seats, the report said. Safety checks were apparently lax, and he was allowed to adjust his own gear. His helmet strap was unfastened, his oxygen mask unattached, his visor was up, and his seat harness was loose.

On takeoff, the pilot and passenger were subjected to 4 Gs. Leveling off around 2,500 feet, that dropped to negative 0.6 Gs, a feeling of weightlessness. At that point, said a translated version of the report, “the insufficiently strapped and totally surprised passenger” grabbed for the nearest handle — which turned out to activate the ejector seat.

The rear canopy was shattered by explosives. The man and the seat to which he was loosely strapped were flung out of the jet. During the ejection, he lost his helmet and oxygen mask. A parachute deployed, and the man fell to earth, landing in a field near the German border. He sustained minor injuries and was taken to a hospital.

If the ejection process had gone as intended, the pilot, too, would have been launched from the jet. The pilot’s canopy was shattered, but because of a technical malfunction his seat remained in the plane, and he was able to return to the air base and land safely. He suffered minor cuts to his face.

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