Some skeptics still believe that it is impossible to escape from certain death when an A-Wing crashes into the Command Bridge.

In order to wipe out all doubt about the survival of Admiral Piett, I write this small and far fetched analysis (and because I'm bored to death for the moment).

First of all: the A-Wing clearly flies over the Command pit, while our Admiral jumps into the pit, avoiding a rather messy personal collision. The explosion, however, results in an dramatic increase of heat and the exhaust of many toxic gasses. But we all know that the temperature in space are near zero Kelvin and this will counter the effect of an all-consuming heat wave. The Admiral won't get toasted, nor will he be poisoned because the vacuum will suck the gasses right into space.

When the A-Wing crashed through the window, all air got sucked out immediately, which means that not only the flames and the toxic gasses were sucked out, but also the debris. Keeping the damage that could have been done by pieces of A-Wing to a minimum.

We can assume that Imperial battleships are provided with safety doors, much as our submarines, which close immediately after extensive damage to the hull, thus keeping the air in and the vacuum out, stabilising the environment inside the rest of the ship. But in the movie we see a gigantic flame coming out of the Command tower, which continues until the Executor crashes into the Death Star. This could mean two things: mechanical/electric failure, or a system override by, lets say, Admiral Piett, providing him with a safe passage straight to the safety pods? Doing so would mean a struggle against the airflow which leaves the ship at tornado-like speed and an alarming drop in pressure. The first part seems possible (we all saw the shower scene and know how muscled he is - thanks to Krista) but what about the second part?

Against the belief promoted by all the B movies: According to various experiments with monkeys and other furry animals and the reports of some accidents in space, people don't explode when exposed to vacuum. Cell tissue tends to be too rigid. You'll rather suffocate because the vacuum forces the air to leave your lungs. Trying to resist this will result in massive lung damage since the small vesicles of your lungs are not strong enough. The amount of bonded oxygen in the muscle and blood could be enough to do some action, like holding onto the metal stairs and crawling your way to a safety pod (which we assume are available in the command pits).

I already mentioned that the temperature in space are just above zero Kelvin (or burning hot when you're right in the radiation path of a star, but we can out rule this problem because there is none seen in the shots). Because we see a massive flame pouring out of the tower, I suppose that that would be sufficient to keep him nicely warm.

So if he wasn't burned up, poisoned, beheaded by pieces of A-Wing, suffocated or thrown into space, he'll have a fair chance to survive if he gets to his lifepod quickly enough.

So he doesn't need to have a clone or a miracle to escape from Rebel fighter pilots who can't fly!