Coach wrote:
Rumor has it his canopy was fogged up and he didn't realize he was going off the runway.
Look at images 12-18...he obviously had already unstrapped from the seat.
That would explain why it looks as though his head smacked the HUD near the end.
I also heard that cockpit fog might have been the factor. It's been very hot and humid in the midwest for the past month or so.
Glad it wasn't any worse than it was. One scrapped Viper is fine as long as the pilot and folks on the ground were not injured.
I heard another plane or two also went off the runway near there from one of my friends who was there. Can't find any info yet to back it up though.