A family member showed me a news report on this shortly after it happened.
The reporter looked very concerned when he said “the USAF remains silent as to what missiles were loaded on the aircraft, and what its mission was.” Sigh. I paused the TV, took a closer look, and saw an AIM-9X and AIM-120B, as well as the remains of a drop tank on the inner station.
I don’t know if there has been any additional reports on what caused it, but I think it was some sort of malfunction of the landing gear. Maybe a tire blew out, maybe the pilot forgot to turn off NWS… My understanding is that a high speed runway excursion = eject before the jet hits the grass and flips over on top of you.
Interestingly, the nozzle appeared to be in the full MIL position. Wouldn’t those bags necessitate the use of afterburner? Then again, the engine probably wasn’t too happy during its last few seconds of operation 😛