Funny, I just stumbled across a similar topic on the core BT forums. Cray had a pretty good post detailing the existing rules/canon info on pilot survivability, as well as page numbers for where the info can be found. I'm not much of an aero fellow, so I can't say I remembered all that specifically. It's pretty eye-opening.
http://www.classicbattletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,4806.msg107216.html#msg107216SI 0 equals automatic crew killed, 96 hours life support on fighters that are still operational, 24 hours on the ejection seat. Most interesting, DropShip crews are never considered killed unless there is a boarding action, SI destroyed, or Crew critical hit. So shooting that ship full of holes, but not killing it? Crew stays intact per the rules.
