My professor just told us a similar story. He was a Phantom pilot in the Vietnam war. He was supposed to take the lead seat in his plane during a routine flight, but a newer guy was scheduled to take his first lead and the powers that be selected my professor's plane to send him out in. So Tom sat in the back seat as they went out. He said about 15mins before returning home, he realized he didn't set something in the controls needed for the landing. So he leaned forward and down to get a good look at the instrument panel to make the corrections. He said he has no idea exactly what they hit because he was leaning down, but all he remembers is the glass in the cockpit exploding, and he had the wherewithal to eject from the plane. The new guy was killed instantly he assumes because he made no attempt to eject. They found my professor on the side of a cliff the next day covered in blood and several feathers still stuck in his flight suit. Dude has some gnarly scars as a reminder. So lucky.