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
“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.”
I suspect that she just wanted to get away from the plane, not knowing if it would blow due to a fuel leak.
The spinning was from the main engine thrust. As the engine spooled down, the spin ended.
The seats in the F-35 are Zero-Zero, so the system was designed for that ejection, and everything worked perfectly. Seat separation, deployment of chute, and deployment of survival gear on lanyard.
Martin Baker should be proud.
I’m just an ordinary bloke on this subject, but I suppose he was following protocol. I mean, you probably can’t tell from the cockpit after an incident like that if there is something burning, fuel spilling, and an explosion about to occur right under you.
I'm sure his decision will be heavily scrutinized (secondary to the crash itself). It's possible he had a fire warning or some other indication that caused him to punch out. Or it might have just been a poor decision. I'm glad he walked away from it.