Do fighter pilots have a ‘sixth sense’ when it comes to ejecting? Why don’t more pilots eject? I would figure if a missile has a lock and is screaming towards your airplane, the number of options you have is going to dry up quick.
Are there pilots that eject before their plane is struck by a missile? I suppose this would be construed as cowardly, but are you really more likely to survive being INSIDE the plane when it gets hit by a missile? Is that worth the risk?
Ejection is not the same as stepping off an escalator. It’s not even the same as skydiving. You literally have a rocket built into your seat. I heard one of the retired-general-military-analysts saying last night that most pilots who eject wind up being treated for back injuries from the sudden shock.
On top of that, consider a combat plane flying at near-supersonic or supersonic speeds. Even if the pilot knows a missile has locked on, he has to want to think twice before blowing himself out of a plane at 700 miles per hour.
I saw two guys eject form a Harrier jump jet a couple of years back. Incredible, as they were only about 200ft off the runway when the engine cut out. They both survived. One of them got up pretty quick and was walking around but the other one was lying on the tarmac for quite a long time with loads of medics round him. The plane was a complete fireball, I thought they were gonna land right in it - I think it was pretty close.
Fighter pilots tend not to give up. They’re not about to eject before the missile hits them. (Besides, they’re probably safer up front in the cockpit than in the open air with all of the metal flying around.)
As kunilou says, injuries are common. I’ve heard a fighter jock who punched out say that he lost a couple of inches because his spine compressed. The early Martin-Baker ejection seats such as used in the F-4 Phantom II were known as “Martin-Breaker” seats because it was not uncommon for a pilot to break an arm during the ejection. Do you remember that A-6 pilot (or bombardier) during Gulf War I who was forced to eject? When the Iraquis showed him on video, it looked as if he’d been pummeled. I’m pretty sure the facial bruising was from the ejection.
And then there’s always the Aviator’s Creed: “It’s better to die than to look bad.” 
ChalkPit a friend of mine died that way a few years back, he ejected from his Harrier and did come down in the fireball.
I have also seen another Harrier pilot hours after a safe ejection, he was noticably shorter.
More trivia:
Ejection seats are supposed to be “0/0” - meaning that they will bring a pilot “safely” to the ground even if engaged when the plane has zero altitude and zero airspeed -
Apparently there were some earlier types of seats that did not launch the pilot high enough out of the plane for the parachute to engage and do it’s job, assuming the pilot ejected while his machine was on the ground. In those cases, the pilot was basically getting shot out a catapult with no saftey net to land on.
That’s why those Harrier pilots survived their ejection.
More trivia. Straight Doper Johnny L.A. has an ejection seat from an A-7E Corsair II in his bedroom. 
(Sadly, I can’t find a rocket for it. I wish I could even find an inert one!)
There are many ejection seats in use today that are not zero-zero. Indeed, some aircraft have been produced with downward-firing ejection seats, which (obviously) aren’t going to save you on the ground.
http://showcase.netins.net/web/herker/ejection/b52.html
http://www.ejectorseats.co.uk/us_scene.html
There were also early ballistic ejection seats where there was no rocket engine - the pilot or aircrew member was literally blown out of the aircraft by the detonation of high explosives.
There’s a brief mention of them (as well as lots of other good info) here:
http://www.aafo.com/racing/tech/seats/part1.htm
And a good general reference:
Remember too, that currently if a pilot ejects he knows there is an extremely high chance he will be captured, tortured, and maybe executed. I think I’d wait until my jet was actually hit too!
Quick story I read about WWII pilots. Apparently some of them got into spins they couldn’t recover from no matter what they did. So they jumped out. But hanging in their chutes they watched the airplane recover!
This was because they were trying to force the plane out of the spin, when all they really needed to do was let go of the controls and let it fly itself out.
Bet they felt stupid.
The story about pilots breaking arms while ejecting , have more to do with the ergonomics of the cockpits, which were not really designed with this in mind. So any 60’s vintage a/c and previous back to the mustang was pretty much added after the fact.
The seat itself propels upwards on two rails , so it goes up. If the pilot has time , the seat is pushed to the very back position and all straps are cinched as tight as possible before the lever is pulled.
I am willing to go out on a limb and state that 90 percent of the ejections seats today are 0/0 seats , one only has to look at that video of the soviet flanker crashing in england ,and where the pilot punched out.
Once the sustainer motor cuts out , the seat falls away and the parachute deploys , so how a pilot lands is pretty much a crap shoot , so some could walk away and others , not a pretty sight.
I believe that new fighters today , the computer will punch a pilot out , if the A/C exceeds some parameters automatically.
Declan
I stand corrected. . .
**I’m not sure about the seat, but as far as the straps go, while in primary training in the T-34, aviators are taught to strap in completely and not loosen anything until landing. We strap in snugly enough so that the torso does not really move forward. The only free-moving body parts are the head, arms, and legs. This is done not for the ejection seat (the T-34 has none as it’s a bail-out aircraft), but due to the need to be immobile during aerobatics and high-g maneuvers. Also, the body, if not properly restrained, can interfere with the full range of motion of the stick.
I’m not aware of any system like this, and would be surprised if any pilot would welcome it in his aircraft. Pilots, before they fly, usually (i.e., should) brief a general set of parameters pertaining to ejection. For instance, a pilot may brief immediate ejection for engine loss on a cat shot. Or, on approach for a trap, may brief any uncommanded roll beyond 60 degrees. You may recall the female F-14 driver who died many years ago on approach to the carrier. IIRC, her plane had an uncommanded roll to the right after a problem-filled (broken plane) approach. They punched out, and I believe the RIO survived because his seat fired first. In the interim, the plane kept rolling right. By the time her seat fired, it was out of acceptable parameters in what looked to be about an 80-90 degree roll. Had this possible scenario been talked about beforehand, she may have passed her pre-set parameters well before reaching the parameter limit window. Easy to say in hindsight, of course.
Declan, if you have any info on these auto-eject seats, please send me a link.
As other posters have noted, it’s hard for a pilot to leave a flying aircraft.
My father was soloing in a T-38 when one of the engines blew up. The explosion also cut one of his hydralic lines so he couldn’t get his gear down. Despite this, he decided to stay with the aircraft. He still had one good engine left and just didn’t feel like lighting a rocket under his butt.
He totaled the aircraft on landing. He walked away, but still wonders if he should have ejected.
Doesn’t a typical anti-air missile only carry about the same amount of explosive as a hand grenade? With that much metal between the explosion and yourself, it doesn’t seem likely that the hit itself will be likely to hurt you all that much. And after that, well, maybe you still have enough control over your plane to crash it in friendly territory, or at least in less hostile territory. You control, then, when and where you do finally eject.
And Blackclaw, just remember that any landing you can walk away from is a good one. In retrospect, your father obviously made the right choice.
That’s what I tell him.
The closest thing I know of to an auto-ejection seat is in the russian Yak-38 (a poor attempt to copy the Harrier). In that airplane the computer uses telemetry from the various instruments to calculate the best “ejection angle” and adjusts the seat accordingly, but it only does this after the pilot decides to eject and pulls the handle.
As for adjusting your straps and such before ejecting, frequently there isn’t time for that. Most modern seats have “pre-tensioners” - basically the pilot’s legs and shoulders are strapped to the seat. Upon ejection the straps automatically tighten to force the pilot into an optimal ejection posture prior to the rocket motor ignition.
As for the question of when to eject, most pilots will ride the aircraft as far as they can before a decision is made. In non-combat situations, ejecting can be a great way of cutting your career short whether you survive or not. Frequently, the pilot undergoes a very detailed review after a non-combat ejection and his career may be affected as a result.
As Chronos pointed out, the warhead on most missiles is fairly small. There are many situations where a hit, even a direct hit, will not result in the loss of the aircraft. At the very least, most pilots will do whatever they can to put themselves in a position to eject over friendly territory. That, along with the potential for serious injury or death mentioned earlier in the thread tend to make ejecting an extreme last resort.