'Top Gun' stunt ends in tragedy as fighter jet bounces off runway after low-altitude triple barrel-roll
A 'Top Gun' stunt has ended in tragedy after a fighter jet bounced off the runway following a low-altitude triple barrel-roll.
Pilot Muhammad Asim Jawad, 32, appeared to be attempting a Top Gun-like stunt with three aileron rolls at low altitude when the fuselage of his Yakovlev Yak-130 scraped along the tarmac.
CCTV shows smoke and sparks erupting from the Russian-made jet before Jawad pulled up from the runway in Chattogram, Bangladesh, on May 9.
But a fire had already broken out in the rear of the jet and Bangladesh Air Force pilot Jawad and his co-pilot Wing Commander Sohan Hasan Khan both ejected.
Both pilots reportedly landed in the Karnaphuli River and were rescued alive by members of the air force, navy and local fishermen, but Jawad later died in hospital, while Khan remains in critical condition.
The aircraft was later recovered from the water. The government's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement that the training jet had 'crashed due to a mechanical failure'.
They claimed the pilots manoeuvred the aircraft away from the densely populated area near the airport to the sparsely populated area where they crashed.
However, CCTV footage of the incident appears to show the crash was caused by the high-risk stunt.
