Interesting & funny article, but but... my brain keeps focusing on the fact that the pilot's ejection seat did not work => is that usually supposed to happen? In this case the Rafale wasn't even doing anything fancy... .
In the F/A-18 we had a selector that you could set to "both" or "rear only" exactly for this type of scenario. Qualified NFO in the backseat, you want both, and I know people who's lives were saved crashing off the carrier. But for a ride along, "rear only" is definitely the correct setting. And I'm pretty sure this has happened before, remember stories from years ago.