I was a flight instructor in the Navy and we practiced breakups and rendezvous all the time - day, night and using NVDs
Losing sight of the lead happens - especially when coming in at too acute an angle and the pilot has to increase angle of bank to get into position - not a good feeling.
Yeah. I guess we non-flyers need to consider how easy it is to lose sight of another car behind a windshield pillar. Then consider fast movers.
May interest
Bell P39Q-15BE 44-2911 Airacobra recovered from Russian lake in 2004
https://lend-lease.net/articles-en/bell-p39q-15be-44-2911-airacobra/