Top Gun: MaverickFlight Instructor Killed in Plane Crash, Miles Teller Remembers Him as 'Kind, Humble and Curious'

Mar. 15, 2025

Miles Teller (left) and Charles T. “Chuck” Coleman.Photo:miles teller/x

miles teller/x

A noted aerobatic pilot who worked as a flight instructor onTop Gun: Maverickdied in a plane crash during an air show on Sunday in New Mexico, authorities said.

He was remembered as “a well known and respected engineer, aerobatic and test pilot with more than 10,000 hours of flight time” who had “performed at hundreds of airshows and had provided more than 3,000 rides in aerobatic aircraft.”

As part of his work educating the actors on flying the Navy’s F-18 Hornets for the smash hit 2022Top Gunsequel, Coleman “flew more than 100 flights,” the Las Cruces officials said.

They said the incident occurred around 2:30 p.m. local time at the Las Cruces International Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the New Mexico State Police are all investigating.

In a brief statement, the NTSBconfirmed thatit is looking into the incident.

The FAA said in its own statement that only Coleman was aboard the plane, a single-engine Extra Flugzeugbau 300/L, when it crashed outside the Las Cruces airport on Sunday.

Further details were not immediately available.

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“We would like to extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones and fans of Chuck Coleman,” Las Cruces Mayor Eric Enriquez said in a statement.

In atribute on X,Top Gun: Maverick’sMiles Tellerremembered Coleman as “kind, humble and curious about others and the world we live in.”

“Chuck had a very easy going way about him and we always felt comfortable with his expertise at our disposal. … Gone too soon but his contributions will live on forever,” Teller, 37, wrote. “Thanks for the memories, Chuck.”

According toa biography on Coleman’s website, he graduated from the University of Michigan with an aerospace mechanical degree and had worked in Hollywood “on numerous other films and shows.”

“The main thing is when people first start flying, especially aerobics, they’re nervous, and that’s not the look forTop Gunpilots,” Coleman said then. “I just try to talk to them and be comforting because it’s crazy stuff that we’re doing in many people’s books.”

Of working with the actors, includingTom Cruise, he said, “You develop kind of a friendship with them, and we noticed that aviation was changing them."

“On one of my flights with Tom, we just talked the whole time about the training and everything,” Coleman said. “He said to me, ‘The confidence is improving in all of them,’ So I’m just, like, wow, Tom Cruise is telling me this. It’s just amazing.”

source: people.com