An aside on ejection seats.
Even if a seat is rated zero-zero (and it appears this may not have been) there will be conditions where it won't save a life. For example, an aircraft descending close to the ground at a lowish speed (say 90 knots) is in a more hostile condition since the seat needs to get the occupant to a safe height despite the rate of descent.
This appears to have been a similar case - the aircraft was relatively slow having just taken off, and was descending. The chap in the front, either from luck or judgement, almost certainly made the right survival decision in not ejecting.
The most modern rocket based seats, such as the Mk.14 in the Harrier or to a lesser extent Mk.10 in Tornado or Hawk compensate for this by a sustained burn from the rocket motor. But older British seats such as the Mk.4 in the Hunter and JP (which is rated 0ft / 90 kn), and I believe from my limited knowledge all but the very newest Russian seats don't have this capacity.
The only way to get around this if a survivable forced landing seems impossible is to pull back hard and try and get a rate of climb at the point of ejection, however brief that might be. Again, at low speed there may not be the energy available to do this with.
G