Peaks arising from the decomposition of doubly-charged metastable ions into two singly-charged ions have been observed in the mass spectra of a number of aromatic hydrocarbons. The doubly-charged molecular ion may eliminate one or more neutral fragments before decomposing, and CH+3, C2H+3 and C2H+5 ions are usually formed during the decomposition. From the widths of the peaks the kinetic energy released during the decompositions has been calculated to be 2-3 eV in most cases. The results confirm the fact that fragment ions possessing kinetic energy in excess of thermal energy arise from the decomposition of doubly-charged ions.