[Griffon]

...also bear in mind that once your plane is heavily damaged, starts smoking or even burning, the world is spinning in a crazy speed and direction, you have to keep your wits and stay calm and think about how to get out of that plane or maybe get it down to the ground in one piece.
to stay thus calm, you need a lot of practice in emergency drills, and I am sure LW nachwuchs fighter pilots did not receive such training in a good amount.
most of them were barely able to take off and land in one piece, so probably, most of them did not really know how to successfully leave a crashing plane.

and I am also pretty sure that the heavy armament of many fighters contributed to a heavy death toll.
I just read Paul Zorners memoires and in this book, he relates how about 90% (IIRC) of the aircrew of the bombers he shot down were killed.
This even though Zorner as a night fighter always aimed at the wings and wingtanks of his bomber victims instead of the fuselage.
I guess, it was not that much different at day and in fighter vs fighter combat...