As the F/A-22 rolled upside down and over the F-16, the official said, the Raptor lost all airspeed but continued maneuvering because the thrust vectoring nozzles were pushing the exhaust out at an angle and the pilot was continuing to use the rudders and stick to try to roll.
"He finds himself literally hanging upside down," the official said, and the F/A-22 "starts him into an inverted, rolling spiral … towards the ground."
After falling thousands of feet, the pilot "lets go of the flight controls," the official said, and the highly computerized F/A-22 straightened itself out.
The incident lasted "a matter of seconds," the official reported, but "it probably did seem like an eternity to him."
HAL and the computers have taken over. Will be hard on some pilots' egos.