True story:
While I was in the Corps, I was flying back to MCAS El Toro after having fixed a broken Hornet in Oklahoma. The last leg of our flight was from Albequerque, NM to SoCal.
As we were nearing Lake Elsinore, the pilot and I were heading towards the "saddle" of Saddleback Mountain when he all of a sudden banked hard right and let out an "Oh *****! Did you see that?"
Being in the aft seat of a T-34, all I was ever able to see during the flight was the back of his helmet and the view out the port and starboard side. Well, I looked out the starboard window in time to see a parachute opening a few hundred feet below us.
I have no idea how close we came, but judging from the pilot's excited comments, I'd guess we came pretty close to having something like this happen to us.
Randy