Hero of Russia, test pilot Magomed Tolboev told the radio station "Moscow Says" that a month ago he spoke with the US Air Force pilot Eric Schultz, who died in Nevada. According to the assumptions of the press, the American military could have crashed while piloting a Soviet-made aircraft, in particular, the Su-27 fighter.
“I showed him dead loops, but I said: don't do this. This is just our plane, dear, we know what to do with it. First you need to know what you are flying. A Cossack is only a Cossack on his horse,”said Tolboyev, who is the honorary president of the MAKS air show.
“[Schultz] was a good guy, he flew well, this is his destiny. He was experienced, no questions asked (…) But there are some very deep subtleties, only we, the test pilots, know them. I told him: "You will die, you cannot do what I do." This is the line,”he added.
Lieutenant Colonel Eric Schultz died on September 5 during a training flight on a US Air Force plane (information about the technique is officially classified) in the state of Nevada. The incident occurred 160 kilometers northwest of Nellis Air Force Base, which is located near Las Vegas. In the same direction is the remote division of Edwards AFB, better known as Area 51.
The Nellis base command initially classified the circumstances of the incident and later refused to disclose them, which generated various speculations in the media. The journalists suggested that the lieutenant colonel could be engaged in testing foreign equipment, including Soviet-made (in particular, the Su-27), or piloted a certain plane, which played the role of a potential enemy during the exercises. In addition, there were suspicions that the Pentagon had classified information about what happened, allegedly due to the loss of an expensive F-35 fighter-bomber in a crash (the journalists were inspired to this idea by the fact that Schultz was one of the pilots trained to fly this aircraft). However, the US Air Force command has denied this version.