Maybe the phantom was evacuating other covenant nearby? Don't they have a grav-lift or something like that?
The phantom was hovering at the exact optimal location and the Jackal was already aiming, they only passed through that little gap for like half a second, not particularly optimal time to take a potshot.
when mr. 'i have a loving minigun' died I was moderately annoyed.
Jorge was an original SPARTAN-II and the only II that ever had anything to do with the SPARTAN-III project other than Kurt-051 (and he died on Onyx), his death was a little loving weird, but sad nonetheless.