Bravo Zulu on your comment. All pilots, even the best (like Snort), make mistakes. As a kid I met most of the old school Top Guns (back when they flew the Phantoms). I also met a lot of the stunt pilots, Art Scholl among them. I had the good luck and honor to have met and gotten to know Bevo Howard about a month before he made his last mistake. These men have testicular fortitude that weasels who make disparaging comments only dream about.
When I was in Germany an experienced Army Helo pilot walked into the spinning tail rotor of his own UH-1. Everybody has a bad day. The difference is, when I screw up I get ridiculed by my coworkers (it happens frequently); when a pilot screws up it makes national news.