I asked the same question a few weeks back, glad I'm not actually losing my marbles!!
When I was at the Navy's Air Engineering school I saw probably the same clip you refer to. The blades were all blown off (Don't remember them going sequentially, but wouldn't argue) and the crew exited vertically, and successfully. The other one I saw was a sideways firing seat.. now that looked iffy!!!
As far as I am aware, no assisted escape system actually exists in service in the west. I don't subscribe to the the "autorotation or doom" philosophy. I think any poler in a situation of extreme peril (Deep sh!t as we commoners say!!) would welcome a last ditch method of potential escape, if he was being honest.
