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The story I heard on this one was that the pilot had set his altimeter for Nellis AFB, the Thunderbirds' home base, instead of Mountain Home AFB, ID, where this crash occurred. The difference in airfield elevation between Nellis and Mountain Home is significant and by the time the pilot realized his error he was about to hit the ground. He was performing the back-half of a low-altitude loop (basically) and he rolled-over and pulled toward the ground at too low an altitude. He realized he did not have sufficient altitude to complete the loop and correctly ejected about two seconds before the jet hit the ground. The photo shows the jet with its nose "up" but it's actually "mushing" toward the ground in a near-stalled condition. The pilot tried to pull hard enough to avoid impact but saw that it was hopeless. I have the cockpit video and I'll try to attach it--it's pretty spectacular. Oh, and his 'chute deployed just before he hit the ground and he jumped up and made a "touchdown" gesture to the crowd, who all cheered at his survival. Needless to say, he was removed from the Thunderbirds and put on ground duty at the Pentagon--I think I had heard he was a general's son but I'm not sure. As British pilots would say in the old days: bad show!