Dudley Henriques wrote:
They both punched out almost simultaneously as the aircraft gave way in
downward pitch to the loss of the primary hydraulic system. I wasn't there,
but they told me it was damn close.
I lost a friend in almost the same scenario when Joe Howard with the
Thunderbirds punched out of his F4 after a similar failure during the
Transpo show at Dulles in 72. Joe's plane went in right ahead of him and he
was sucked into the fireball. He never had a chance.
It's a tough business.

Yes, that is my recollection from the video. I believe one of them went
briefly through the fireball and the other narrowly missed it. I don't
think they we more than 200' high when they punched out and likely less
than that.

Matt