17,000 Feet, face outside the aircraft? I thought that, a la Payne Stewart, being that high without pressure and oxygen caused death within minutes. Could there be, at least, some exaggeration going on?
No, hypoxia at that altitude and velocity resulting in his passing out. Had they been stationary he probably would've had some brain damage, but at nearly 400 mph he had plenty of O2. Also, they were in a nosedive with steadily increasing oxygen.
Payne Stewart's Lear suffered decompression on its' way up to 41,000 feet, most likely through a failure of the pressurization pumps. They died because the co-pilot didn't follow the rules - one of the flight crew MUST be strapped into their seat and wearing oxygen at ALL TIMES above FL 12. (12,000' above sea level.)