Is it still possible to pull the plug (metaphorically speaking)?

I was given to thinking that the developers had solved this problem ?

I ask because I'm a bit pee'd off. This morning I got whacked off (NO NOT THAT SORT OF WHACKED, get your mind out of the gutter)by the same pilot (possibly WOLF 13, but may very well have been a clone with a similar tag) 3 times in a row, which is fine, he was a good shot and made the most of his positional advantages and turning ability in his DR 1.

However the fourth time I met him, he forgot to bring any little distractions with him(he headed straight in my direction, map icons on) we got into a real close in knife fight. He had the altitude advantage (air start) so dictated terms and made the initial attacks but after several minutes twisting and turning I, by delft handling and no small amount of luck (remind me to look up "delft" in the dictionary) got onto his tail, with the added bonus of having built up a small energy advantage (that's probably them Duracell batteries I picked up from my wife's..... eerrrrr, no maybe not). Just as I was about to get a good, long, close up shot into his low six, I think he'd lost site of me, he vanished into thin air.

Now I'm not saying I got any rounds into him, but there's every possibility that I may have clipped him, even if only causing superficial damage I was a bit miffed then when he decided he'd had enough and bugged out rather than run the risk of taking a fall (doubtful given my shooting skills). Maybe I was a tougher nut to crack than he initially thought and he got bored and decided to seek out easier prey else where. He certainly popped up again very quickly getting another kill near to his air start position.

I'm not outright accusing him of foul deeds, although it's a bit cheap if it was WOLF 13 (why was he on an easy fly server anyway, I wouldn't have thought it was much of a challenge ?) but his vanishing was bloomin convenient if it was a connection error.

So my question is , how much damage is it possible to take and still vanish without losing a life ? Do you only lose a life if you're mortally wounded, on fire or sans lift elements such as wings ? Can you take some superficial damage decide the situation doesn't look productive and yank the plug rather than try to escape or risk virtual death ?

I would have been less pi$$ed off if he had been some Noob but whoever he was he obviously wasn't.