Hi Hellshade,
I imagine it would be horrific, I have a book at home called Silk and Barbed Wire which recounts the stories of Allied airmen who where shot down over Europe in WWII. one of the stories has a bomber crew bailing out in daylight, the navigator has just pulled his chute and settled into the decent when his chute partial collapses, then a person slips off the canopy and falls past him only metres away. It was the pilot who had jumped but his chute must have been hit by flak or something as it was just a shredded mess flapping about just above his head. he tells of looking his mate in the eye as he went past and just watched him dissapear clawing hopelessly against the empty sky into the vast landscape below, never to be seen again.
To see anyone going to certain death would be horrific but to see a mate go I imagine would be even worse.
But in WWI you didnt need to see the pilot up close to get that sence of dread, many have written of the horror of watching machines going down out of control with perfectly healthy pilots going to certain death.
And not just pilots, I have an account of a soldier who watched a two seater, engine shot out pilot slumped in the forward cockpit, rear gunner standing up waving his arms about, doing a very slow wide spin into the ground, (taking several minutes to do so) and he could hear the paniced screams of the rear gunner just before it hit the ground. the rear gunner was still alive when he reached the wreck but died shortly after. he says that image haunted him for almost 50 years.
actually thinking about it more I think the book is "The 13th mission" not "Silk and Barbed Wire"
regards Rob.