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PDF THINK TANK: ANALYST
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The context of my post was not digging into the scenario rather the constant verbal skirmishes you guys are having.
Debate ? Definitely.
Civilized? To some extent...
When one watches the video plainly, not considering multiple possibilities related to engine and jet, Yes, The simple plain answer would be to blame the Pilot and the altitude calibration.
But, watch it from other angles, a lot is there which we can’t seem to process. Even if the fault was of Pilot, One shouldn’t come directly, extracting the crash details and calling it pilot error on a thread full of people sympathizing with pilot and the crash especially in the first 2 days.
Secondly, if the Altitude was indeed quite less (which it did seem), Who is to be blamed here ? The one who had this idea of organizing an unprecedented and unperformed previously F-16 aerobatics, with close calls like Solo Turk or Viper Demo team.
I still don’t agree here, when he turned in the Split S, Losing altitude very fast, the room or window was of 2-3 seconds. And the most recent clip, Yes, ejection could have been possible, but Human instinct of saving oneself overcomes the “Mar jao aur bachon ko pension khilao” and that too in 0.88 second...
I hope you understand that I am not rejecting you completely but neither agreeing...
Couple of important consideration, the radar altimeter antenna is under the nose of the F-16. So pretty much useless when own-ship orientation means the antenna is not pointing to the ground - typical inside the loop (inverted). So at this point the pilot is relying on the "Altitude, Altitude" squawk from Betty and in the absence of radar altitude, Betty will rely on correctly calibrated instruments.
Also quite possible the pilot had blacked out between 7-9 o clock inside the loop while pulling between -3.5Gs or higher - depends on speed and AoA. Negative G tolerance is much lower than positive Gs. May be the reason he did not bail - we can only speculate, probably the wrong thing to do considering the loss to friends,family and the nation.
I have been guilty of speculation on this occasion as well - I should not have contributed.