A very good friend of mine has a story - why he never met his Dad. West Germany, late 50s, early 60s (must have been like 1960), his Dad comining back from a recon mission in (I believe a RF-101, might have been a F104) - lost the engine. He has 2 choices, punch out, but the plane was heading for the local grade school, or stay with it, trying to get it away from the school, and punching out "late", and hoping the seat was good enough (remember, bang seats in those days were NOT 0/0 seats - His dad didn't make it, but the airplane crashed across the street in a field...