Former F-14 and F-18 driver Cdr Bob Norris once wrote the fiction book titled "Check Six" which contains a funny stage: some carrier, VFA squadron ready room before the combat sortie when the Marine sergeant brought the box with sidearms for pilots and said: "Gentlemen, you're not Marines and not soldiers and I actually want you to treat the pistols as if they were hand grenades, comprande? I said, COMPRANDE?" Some of pilots replied "Yes Sir", after which there was iconic "I-am-not-sir-I-work-for-a-living", then that colorful sarge saluted and went off.
Generally speaking, Russian AF tactical pilots who were forced to eject over Afghan in 1980-88, beloved Stechkin 9-mm automatic pistol which could fire short bursts and a pair of those fucking "lemons", a Russian slang for hand grenades F-1. So they do that now in Syria. Not for succesful defence mostly but rather to escape the capture in a way of true Asian warrior: to take with them more enemies at the moment of the last breath. Dunno is that good or bad but this is the AF tradition in tactical fighter (attack) squadrons.