{"id":25218,"date":"2024-10-22T16:25:59","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T22:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pilot-killed-in-a-plane-crash-at-a-new-mexico-air-show-was-an-instructor-for-top-gun-actors\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:13:12","slug":"pilot-killed-in-a-plane-crash-at-a-new-mexico-air-show-was-an-instructor-for-top-gun-actors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pilot-killed-in-a-plane-crash-at-a-new-mexico-air-show-was-an-instructor-for-top-gun-actors\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilot killed in a plane crash at a New Mexico air show was an instructor for \u2018Top Gun\u2019 actors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=d52e337d-029f-48ba-9959-d5bb50aca265&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"838\" alt=\"This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Tom Cruise portraying Capt. Pete \u201cMaverick\u201d Mitchell in a scene from \u201cTop Gun: Maverick.\u201d Charles \u201cChuck\u201d Coleman, an aerobatic flight instructor for actors in the 2022 film, died Sunday after a crash at the Las Cruces Air Show. Paramount Pictures via AP\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Tom Cruise portraying Capt. Pete \u201cMaverick\u201d Mitchell in a scene from \u201cTop Gun: Maverick.\u201d Charles \u201cChuck\u201d Coleman, an aerobatic flight instructor for actors in the 2022 film, died Sunday after a crash at the Las Cruces Air Show. Paramount Pictures via AP<\/span><span class=\"credit\">onset<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>LAS CRUCES \u2013 A man who died in a crash of a small plane during a New Mexico air show was an accomplished pilot who had performed stunts at hundreds of air shows, authorities said Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Charles Thomas \u201cChuck\u201d Coleman was the only person on board the two-seat Extra Flugzeugbau EA300 monoplane when it went down around 2:30 p.m. Sunday during the Las Cruces Air and Space Expo at Las Cruces International Airport, city officials said.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities said Coleman was performing aerobatics when the plane crashed about a half-mile west of the airport. The air show was called off after the crash.<\/p>\n<p>Coleman\u2019s website said he was based out of California and was an engineer, aerobatic and test pilot with more than 10,000 hours of flight time.<\/p>\n<p>He performed at hundreds of airshows and had provided more than 3,000 rides in aerobatic aircraft, according to his website.<\/p>\n<p>It also said Coleman was an aerobatic flight instructor for actors in the 2022 film \u201cTop Gun: Maverick,\u201d flying more than 100 flights to prepare the actors for flight in U.S. Navy F-18 Hornets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would like to extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones and fans of Chuck Coleman,\u201d Las Cruces Mayor Eric Enriquez said in a statement Monday.<\/p>\n<p>New Mexico State Police, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash. The airport was temporarily closed during the initial investigation, with only scheduled and emergency response flights permitted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coleman was an aerobatic flight instructor for actors in \u2018Top Gun: Maverick\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78849,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25218\/revisions\/78849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25218"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}