Originally Posted by rickair7777

More insider perspective...

The pilot was a senior officer with plenty of experience, so not a student oopsie.

Flight of two, so only one would have been squawking to ATC. I don't know who was lead but since it was a training command I would guess the senior guy was -2 and doing some training/evaluating for -1 (who would have been squawking by default).

-1 would have focused on the ejected pilot, not the plane.

Also an ejection apparently triggers some onboard "cleanup", to reduce the enemy's opportunity to exploit the wreckage. Erasing critical items from computer memory... and deactivating IFF/transponder.

Radar reflectors apparently not installed.

The plane has GCAS, which prevents CFIT by autonomously leveling the wings and pulling up when ground contact is imminent. That might explain why it kept flying, if GCAS "saved" it every time it tried to crash.