Unseen World!

No clue as to what happened though, cant find any official reports on it, maybe and accidental ejection or more likely a structural failure. Only info I have is

"A September 21, 1995 video of a F-14 fly-by that goes wrong. The aircraft nearly breaks the sound barrier (you can see the mist forming), then explodes because of what was apparently an engine compression failure. The two pilots, from VF-213 (Black Lions) ejected successfully. The carrier battlegroup, with the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), was 1,400 kilomters west of Guam at the time."

If you look closely at the back of the aircraft in the first frame you see that thin streak protruding from the rear of the plane, its only there for 1 frame, the next to you have to look really closely and you can see a very faint smoke trail, difficult to see in the still images but if you import the movie into Windows movie maker 2 (free) and play it frame for frame its much more noticeable.
When a jet engine ‘flames out for instance you get a puff of smoke from the fuel and the reeds trying to fire, but this is obviously a bit more terminal.
As for the sound barrier, this effect is common with anything moving fast in an area of high humidity and is caused by the changing air pressure around the object as it knifes its way through the air causing condensation to form. The speed at which this would occur depends on the shape of the object and the surrounding air pressure and % of humidity at the time.
You can witness this type of effect to a much lesser degree by watching formula1 for instance ( vortices off the tailfins) when they race in high humidity conditions or on a normal aircraft on short final approach sometimes off the flaps and spoilers prior to landing.
It can happen before he breaks the sound barrier, during or after that.
The point to note is, If he did pass through the sound barrier at that point these folks on the deck would of known about it for sure with a loud cracking sound (like a extended firecracker going off) shortly after the flyby which is most certainly not present.