MediaNews Group
Van Buren Township − The pilot of a MiG jet that crashed during a 2023 performance at the Thunder Over Michigan air show blamed his rear-seat observer for the mishap, though investigators concluded the observer had little choice but to eject the men from the faltering aircraft when he did, a new report shows.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s final report into the cause of the Aug. 13, 2023, crash in Van Buren Township indicated that had rear-seat observer Mark Ruff pulled the ejection handle on the Soviet-era MiG-23UB fighter jet any later, both men could have been more grievously injured or killed…