I didn't know all crewmembers had the option.

Another valuable application of technology - both in the ejection mechanisms and the locate, search and rescue equipment.

My father-in-law told of a test flight in Junkers after WWII, the brass had decreed that the Allied test pilots could take a German aircraft mechanic along on flights to help decipher controls, etc, but that the mechanics could not wear parachutes. Part way through the flight, one (of two) engines caught fire and it was a long ways to shore. He could have jumped himself but couldn't bear to leave the mechanic to crash, so he babied the plane to a rough landing on the beach with the wing almost burned off, whereupon the mechnic (rather ungratefully!) stood on my FILs head in his rush to get out. After that, FIL took a chute for the mechanics in defiance of the rules.