Courtesy Royal Danish Air Force
This self-portrait by an F-16 pilot in the Royal Danish Air Force caught a live air-to-air Sidewinder missile at the moment of launch.
ABC News reports that the pilot is Thomas Kristensen, who has flown missions over the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Libya. The picture is a screen-grab from a video that was released by the Royal Danish Air Force in October of 2012.
More at The Aviationist.
Mike
(Thanks to Steve Walker)
Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.
(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
Patrick Perez: "You know the old saying. F-16 and be there."
Doug C: "This gives new meaning to the word 'photobomb.'"
aventurinha: "Well...I think astronaut Mike Hopkins might disagree:"
Nick Cutler: "I prefer a grandson to a missile:"
Nigel: "I think you'll find this one of me, over France, March 1915, was the earliest selfie. Or self-shot Box Brownie as we called it then:
"Actually, over Wellington in one of Peter Jackson's perfect bi-plane replicas. Lucky me."
Good thing its going straight.
Posted by: paul in AZ | Wednesday, 05 March 2014 at 10:13 PM
I blew that up and the lettering on the rocket says "Estes 2 Stage" .
so, forensically speaking, interfail!!
Plus that tangent with the edge is just all kinds of BUGGIN to my left eye, lopes. That guy is a lousy ShoOTeR.
Anyhow, I'm a better snow shoveler than that dude in the plane.
Posted by: David | Wednesday, 05 March 2014 at 10:32 PM
This is my selfie, and you WILL re-Tweet it...or else.
Posted by: stephen | Wednesday, 05 March 2014 at 11:42 PM
What about the pilot at the other end ... taking a selfie with the incoming missile in it?
Posted by: Juha Haataja | Thursday, 06 March 2014 at 04:58 AM
No, this one is: http://instagram.com/p/ibm8g4IaKl/#
Followed by this one: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia16937.html
Posted by: Craig A. Lee | Thursday, 06 March 2014 at 06:47 AM
Er, is this really a "selfie"? From the video, it doesn't look like he's taking his own photo. Isn't this just a clip from the video camera that's trained on him?
Posted by: Carl Siracusa | Thursday, 06 March 2014 at 09:05 AM
Have you heard? Phone-cameras have become so pervasive, and are so unsuited to anything other than selfies, that there is a new term for a photo of anything other than your self: "reverse-selfie".
Posted by: Luke | Thursday, 06 March 2014 at 09:16 AM
Something tells me he was not holding his phone at arms length while pressing the fire (rather than snap)button with the other hand!
Posted by: Andrew Hughes | Thursday, 06 March 2014 at 09:33 AM
Those Danes are always mixing it up with somebody!
Posted by: John MacKechnie | Thursday, 06 March 2014 at 09:36 AM
+1 for pilot & grandson
Posted by: Bill Kearney | Friday, 07 March 2014 at 01:01 AM
No. 1 selfie in the animal kingdom: http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2011/jul/05/macaues-indonesia-wildlife
Posted by: Patrick | Friday, 07 March 2014 at 06:07 AM
Nah! Rubbish shot - makes the pilot look like E.T.
Posted by: Jerry Lewis-Evans | Friday, 07 March 2014 at 08:54 AM