I watched this yesterday.
It looks like after a hard bounce landing something happened to the drive train feeding power to the forward lift fan, which caused a loss of lift from that fan and subsequent nose first second landing.
Interesting that the pilot had the presence of mind to wait until the aircraft leveled out after doing its little spin on the ground to punch out.
Looking at the aftermath, he probably didn’t need to punch out at all, but hindsight and all...
Interesting that the pilot had the presence of mind to wait until the aircraft leveled out after doing its little spin on the ground to punch out.
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At that point it looked like the power was down enough that it was no longer moving. Either he wasn’t taking the chance that it would, or he panicked. Looked like a hard landing. Shute barely had time to open. In hindsight, he might have been better off not ejecting
Scuttlebutt is that there was fire warnings lit up.
And the engine was screaming the whole time after touchdown. Didn’t look like the pilot ever pulled power. Weird looking event with the flying moonpig.
My thoughts exactly - so he had a split second to consider the possibility of a ruptured fuel cell/fuel line-induced incineration or a broken leg from a short eject.
I'd choose the broken leg, too.