After the success of the mid flight test of the LES, a launchpad escape was also an essential test to make sure the system could reliable used as escape method. A launched escape from this height was expected to be much more risky due to the limited height the parachuted had to deploy.
After ignition of the abort engines the pod went south with a peak altitude of 800m
At the apoapsis the parachutes did not deployed due to - was later found - a loose wire at the automatic attitude deployment system of the chutes. The parachutes where manually deployed by Yuri but critical seconds were lost.
Booth chutes deployed just in time but they had to little time to fully slow the pod down, resulting in a 65km/h landing, much higher than the maximum designed 28km/h.
The heat-shield was severely damaged and Yuri had some bruises, but other than that the escape was successful.
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