*TLDR wanring*
That thickens the plot quite a bit. The narrative from the observer is basically akin to he had more SA than the front seater, and essentially saved his life. The further implication on his part is that the owner (front-seater) was biased towards troubleshooting vs punching. Fighting words amongst friends, especially when one goes to one of the youboobers (not a specific dig at this Perdue fella, I have personal acquaintances who are youboobers too) and agrees to get interviewed for what is effectively a refutation of an NTSB prelim. I'd like to hear the version from the front seater, regarding the state of the engine and the energy parameters. Given he is alive, he should be able to refute it, if the narrative is self-serving coming from the back seater.
As to the NTSB, that org has become such a disgrace. This is why I'll keep poking at the appeal to authority fallacies often parroted on here regarding deference to the alphabets. Hoo boi, what a keystone cop operation. Folks, if it doesn't have 121 on the front of the chapter, don't expect good or timely poop from these folks. And here I thought the usaf/usn AIB/AMB process was bush league....
Perdue goes too much Pepperidge Farms Remembers for my taste, instead of letting the main attraction talk. So I had to fast forward like a bad porno preamble. So I'll ask since I probably missed it, did the backseater disclose what kind of experience he had on the MIG-23? Doing a cursory google-fu, looks like the guy was a C-17 dude and currently a 121er, aka mil
basic pilot. Don't get too deep looking though, cuz it also appears he's the same Mark Ruff engulfed in a nasty 2018 lawsuit involving him and 4 of his siblings, the mother and the convicted sibling, all squabbling like vultures over the late Ruff's almost 26-50 million dollar estate. holy. crap. Complete with youtube videos, allegations of murder threats, just the works. Yikes.
At any rate, if we are to take his narrative at face value, as someone who flies behind the same kind of old timey turbine engines, this sounds to me like idle-decay when the front seater gets an AB no light and goes all the way back idle-to-MIL. If true, he probably shouldn't have done that, going MIL-to-AB/MAX/reheat/wahtever the Ruskie label for it is, would have sufficed. Now, there's a big difference between an AB no light, idle decay, and an actual rollback/flameout. His narrative is not particularly specific on that front, which I found a little underwhelming for a guy who made the decision to punch everybody out.
The old timey analog fuel control probably hanged, though I'm a bit surprised this would happen at 300 knots (he didn't seem particularly sure of the actual value), even in a big bore MIG. Those big-@ssed Migs are draggy as hell, so I'm not surprised a big lumbering flogger go from 3 bills to nothing in zero time flat.
If it was indeed idle-decay, though he's not completely correct that it would require an airstart by default, he is correct they would need a ton of altitude to clear the fuel control choke and get the turbine spooled up again. It takes almost the same altitude loss as an airstart, so I'll concede the semantics. The point is he is correct they didn't have anywhere near the altitude to clear it. Again, he makes the owner-pilot sound like he was aloof and tunneled-vision. I would expect the owner to recognize this sequence, given we do know the flying background of the front seater in its entirety.
Looks like he's going full retard on making the social media round now, ward carrol is next youboober on the hopper who has him in the queue, I think the video streamed here 20 mins ago. I will say, it is a departure for me to see folks involved in an ejection, gum-flapping so openly about it "before the NTSB final is out". It's kinda refreshing actually.
I'll say again, he doesn't paint a complementary picture of the owner-pilot ("Files" Filer ?). Having to direct him to throw the wings forward, read out the airspeed trend, command flaps. It reads like a narrative of an instructor talking to an upgrade or unqual. Again interesting given the backseater was not a pointy noser in the usaf, and files was navy tacair, so he's not uninitiated to pointy nose. The backseater must have more civilian Mig experience than is being reported, given his family history he has the socioeconomic background to float a stand-alone civilian fighter hobby.
Has anybody found any interviews with files on the accident in question? The fact the backseater is leaking like a seeve all over the internet and the front seater is EMCON IV, doesn't escape me right now.
