Aren’t pilots not supposed to eject until they know this won’t happen?
I will hazard a guess they ejected as late as possible; beyond a certain point they can’t control where it crashes and there’s no point in them sacrificing their lives by riding it into the ground if they can no longer affect where it crashes.
>Aren’t pilots not supposed to eject until they know this won’t happen?
Pilots do all they can to get their craft away from populations and when it’s impossible to control it further
the only recourse is to punch out. No need to go down with a craft that is uncontrollable.
No.
You do all you can to avoid it, but when the condition of your aircraft reaches the point where you no longer have any ability to influence where the crash site will be you yank the loud handle and punch outta there.
There's no sense adding two more fatalities to however many there may or may not end up being on the ground.
Only to the limits of what's humanly possible. If there is massive mechanical failure, and the craft is totally unresponsive, they can't do anything.
The next best thing is eject at the last possible second. Many pilots have ejected a second too late, and also died.