If a pilot ejects, what is the autopilot programmed to do? (2018) (opens in new tab)

That's not at all what Donnie Darko is about, but a jet engine from an unaccounted-for airplane does land in his house.

1) Something is going catastrophically wrong with the plane. It's flying now, but soon that fire will burn through the hydraulics, safer to punch while it's still in controlled flight.

2) There is not enough fuel to put it on a runway. Once again, punch while it's still stable. We've even seen a civilian do that--ferry flight with one of those planes with an integrated parachute. He had a fancy rig with extra fuel in the cabin, it wouldn't feed. Without it he wasn't going to make Hawaii.

3) We have seen a Navy pilot correctly punch from a fully functional aircraft. He was on final when somebody launched an SM-2 at him. Low, slow, defenses off--no chance, he punched. He was pointed right at the carrier at the time, having an autopilot do something else would be a good idea. (There would always be a chance that the missile was destructed in time.)

And with semi-functional planes:

4) We have seen an Israeli pilot bring their bird back with one wing. He had to land very hot but there was a long enough runway, he was able to do it. But what if it's even worse? There can be enough damage that your minimum airspeed is above any runway you can reach or above what your wheels can handle. Or maybe the Navy would prefer the pilot to eject rather than risking a major mishap on the deck.

5) What if the problem is elsewhere? We have seen a pilot punch from an apparently-functional F-35. The problem was actually in his controls. (Yes, he has been found wrong--the first two investigations cleared him (if the plane is not responding properly to pilot inputs below 6,000' AGL, eject), they finally found a panel that would declare him wrong. Doesn't make him wrong.)

Compare to 20 in 20 jet airplane crashes resulting in death and suddenly pulling that lever might seem a worthwhile risk to take

The first one, the Airplane was in an uncontrolled spin, the ejection happened to fix it.

A heavy object moving fast has a shocking amount of energy. When such an object impacts the ground, all that energy has to go somewhere.

This is a standard technique for quick and secure data wipes, particularly on e.g. modern SSD drives where a traditional wipe might be incomplete due to wear leveling algorithms.