Funny enough, in RL we have a similiar issue that Frenchy met online.
If the first aircraft in a 4-ship of heavily loaded F-15E's takes off and has an engine malfunction right after takeoff, what does he and the rest of the formation do?
Assume the flight lead has some sort of survival instinct, he jettisons external fuel and possibly bombs as well. This creates a mess near the end of the runway, burning fuel and bombs bouncing about.
Now the rest of the formation has to decide what to do. #2 aircraft is probably already rotating for takeoff, so he must decide to abort and hit the burning/exploding mess at taxi speed as he aborts through it, or continue the takeoff and fly at low altitude and low speed through the fireball. If a bomb cooks off after bouncing around in the fireball, #2 is gonna catch it in the teeth or ass. #3 sees all this, and if he continues the takeoff, he may run into #2 who may be aborting. #4 sees this happening and hollers on the radio right when #1 makes his emergency radio call and #2 is telling #3 whether he is aborting or continuing, so all that comes out of the radio is:
"blahblahbadsfqafguascreeeech!!!!!!!ohshxt!"
If at any point anyone ejects, now there is another 14,000 lbs of burning fuel plus any remaining bombs/missiles/bullets/airframe cooking off, and even if the chutes don't drift back into the fireball (I lost a classmate that way), #2 may run right into the chutes or ejection seats as they fall to earth.
Messy scenario, good thing it doesn't happen often. I read about B-29s in WWII dribbling off the runway and exploding or sinking into the bay as the rest of the B-29 mission launched over the fireball and wreckage on the way to Japan... Nasty business, war.
