[Mr Rogers]

That was my question. Maybe a hydraulic loss, they tried to limp back to the coast, going slower in prep for a possible ejection, then a total loss of hydraulics (which means no flight controls) so eject...the plane enters a flat spin without them.

I don’t know. I just found the picture of the crash site unusual. I’d have expected either a hole or a furrow...

[Mr. Silverback]

What gets me is that the vertical stabs are broken. I've never seen that before. If it wasn't for them, I would think we are looking at a combat ops version of the Cornfield Bomber followed by a fire.