I can’t believe the pilot stuck with the aircraft so long!
I think he held on so long because it really seemed like the thing was just going to skid to a stop. There’s a good chance he didn’t even see the flames behind the cockpit.
I have to wonder why there just happened to be someone filming this particular landing. I wonder if they where expecting problems, though from my totally uninformed opinion is that it was pilot error. It looks like he set it down at much to steep of an angle.
And lastly, I saw one of those in person a few years ago doing it’s vertical take off and then fishtailing around in the air…pretty cool.
He was texting his girlfriend before he noticed.
Amazing still of the incident linked from the comments.
Yeah, I saw that picture…its amazing, really.
That’s what I thought too but wouldn’t there have been “warning FIRE, warning FIRE!” alerts going off in the cockpit somewhere?
I dunno. I’m curious as to what was actually burning. Could it just have been unburned fuel in the exhaust?
Sort of looks like he flared to come in for a more vertical landing, and possibly lost power.
He hit hard. He may have been stunned. I suspect that every alarm that could go off did. Perhaps it took a few seconds to get his wits about him after the ‘landing’ and punch out. Never an easy choice I’m sure.
I friend of mine was a US Marine pilot. They told him if he pranged the aircraft, it would come out of his pay. 
I’m wondering if he has a sister, because with depth perception like that, she’d think my unit was huge!
hmmm. or really small. that might not be as good.
I’m wonderering if the rotating part of the engines failed. Maybe he was trying to point the thrust vertically as he approached the ground, but the exhaust nozzles didn’t turn downward.
I’d say he was taking time considering going up in smoke with the plane rather than face the shame of explaining how he effed up that landing so much. 
What is shocking is how violently sudden the ejection is. It looks like ejection would be very likely to result in injury, so I think the pilot wanted to make sure it was the better option before he pulled the cord.
This is the case with all military ejections. The seat has a rocket motor under your ass, and is designed to get you out of the plane in a fraction of a second. Some older seats were actually designed to break through the canopy. Ejections routinely break limbs, backs, necks, and can easily kill the pilot if everything does not go exactly right. You only eject if the alternative of staying in the plane is worse.
A similar thing is true with submarine escape systems, but to an even greater extent. If you’re using the escape trunk, things have gone very wrong, and you’re probably going to die.
He didn’t want to have to face his crew chief, from whom he borrowed the plane.
My A-7E ejection seat has canopy penetrators.
The only thing I need is the rocket. 
EDIT: Oh, and the rest of the plane.
.
Don’t you need the plane too? Or at least the canopy?
Damn, you win.
Nah! If you can get the rocket, you don’t need the rest of the plane. You just need a parachute for the second half of the ride.
Some first generation ejection seats didn’t use rockets - they had a cluster of charges similar to shotgun shells under the seat. Modern rocket seats actually modulate their thrust somewhat during the ejection sequence so the g-forces aren’t as bad as they might be. With the older seats it was just one big WHAM at about 20 g. Lots of injuries.
I once flew a MiG-15 equipped with one of the shotgun shell ejection seats. The more I learned about it, the closer I came to canceling the flight. The manual hedged a bit on what would happen if you ejected because nobody had done it with one of those seats in many years. It said the “best historical evidence” suggested a spinal injury was likely.
Even better, the ejection sequence was entirely manual. Unlike the guy in the Harrier, who was equipped with a zero-zero seat (usable at zero airspeed and altitude) which automatically deployed the chute, the MiG was all hands on and only at certain mimimal altitude and airspeed. Here was the sequence:
- Scrunch your feet up in the stirrups, tuck in your chin, sit up straight
- Pull the pin from the handle
- Push the handle forward to jettison the canopy
- Pull back to eject yourself
- If still conscious, separate yourself from the seat (not the parachute!)
- Deploy your chute
- Learn to skydive in a hell of a hurry. With a severe back injury.
Eventually I did the flight, but kept my distance from the ejection handle as much as was possible in the very cramped rear cockpit of the MiG.
And to some sensitive parts, no less. 