Stunt pilot Art Scholl had become internationally renowned for his aerial stunt work in films like Blue Thunder and The Right Stuff before he was selected to complete an inverted air stunt that would become a big part of Top Gun's storyline. According to The Los Angeles Times, Scholl was heard relaying his in-air troubles during production on the scene, saying on his radio, "I've got a problem here." Scholl was highly skilled at the maneuver, so colleagues concluded that there must have been a mechanical failure that caused his vessel to crash. However, neither he nor his plane were recovered from the debris, despite a search effort, so the details leading up to his death are unknown.

The mystery that surrounds the failure that cost him his life still lingers with his widow, Judy Scholl, who told The Daily Mail, "Art didn't say what the problem was. This is the one thing I'm not happy about with him. So I don't know if he had a control failure, where maybe the camera jammed into the flight controls. Or whether he had an issue with the flight controls where he wasn't able to get the airplane out of the flat spin or whether he was disorientated. He didn't say." Scholl was 53.