“I just can’t believe a Russian fighter pilot would be so incompetent to crash into the rear of another aircraft. Ergo, the drone had to have been shot down.”
My father was a pilot in the USAAF during WWII, and was in the ETO. After Germany surrendered he was in Germany for a spell and he said that on the airfield where he was there were some Russian pilots, as well. He said Russian pilots were nuts, and would pull some stunts as a matter of routine that no American pilot would ever try except in the direst of emergencies, because it would get them grounded. He said Russian pilots crashed all the time. He said they were probably just showing off, usually with fatal consequences. He said it wasn’t bravery; it was stupidity.
Crazy Ivan comes to mind.
Yes and we had Bud Holland, the rogue pilot that crashed his B-52 after having maneuvered it beyond its operational limits at low altitude.