U2 down in Northern California

[Madbob]

AtomKraft
I'm no expert on the ejection seats in the U2 but I do know of other tandem seat aircraft that were fitted with ejection seats and where each crew member sat under their own canopy. In the days before command ejection and automatic sequencing it was not unknown for the rear seater to collect a face full of the front seaters canopy.
In the F4 for example, the SOP was for the rear seater to go first in a premeditated ejection. That way he'd be gone before the front seat canopy jettisoned and there would be no risk of them colliding.
In an unpremeditated ejection the pilot would just go leaving the WSO to follow as quickly as he could react.
Pure speculation here, but with two good chutes observed the possibility must be that one of the crew, during the ejection sequence, struck either the other pilot's seat, or his canopy, resulting in fatal injuries.
If so it is all very sad but it won't have been the first time it has happened....

MB