What I don't understand. How did the pilot survive this crash. He is at 50'000 ft at Mach 1 and the airplane breaks apart. I don't think there are ejection seats? How is this possible?
Survivability of a high speed ejection depends on multiple factors. But consider air is denser at lower altitude than at 50.000', therefore the forces at 50.000 feet and Mach1 are less than the same speed at 10.000'. So the speed would not have been a problem here, but the uncontrolled sequence of separation from the aircraft and environmental factors like oxygen and temperature. A crew of our wing had an ejection below 300' and going 540 knots IAS, they both had their helmets torn off their heads and they suffered bruises like boxing with M.Ali for an hour from the air blast. The frontseater had both arms dislodged from his schoulders with multiple fractures. The body position of the WSO was drastically better, as he was the guy who initiated ejection and he therefore was prepared for it and had no fractures at all.