Top Gun at Fenway Park

I almost died on Tuesday.*

It was all the fault of some hotshot pilot from the Vermont National Guard. As he and three of his fellow airmen screamed toward Fenway Park during the closing notes of the national anthem, he broke formation. He fell behind the other planes, then looped underneath and reclaimed his spot in the V.

The pilot’s superiors weren’t impressed with his showmanship, and grounded him.

But much like the people who applaud a doomed pilot just before the air show turns tragic, the crowd totally dug it.

“I didn’t think there was any imminent danger but just that maybe something was wrong.”

“The people around me were drunk so they just went, ‘Whoaaa,’ ” [ticketholder Gina Reitano] added.

But a Guard spokesman makes like Viper and grounds this modern-day Maverick.

“I understand the crowd liked it, but you won’t see it again,” said Lieutenant Colonel Lloyd Goodrow, a Guard spokesman.

Just you wait until the terrorists show up. Then you’ll be happy to have this unidentified pilot on your side.

*No, not really. The Guard spokesman told the Globe that spectators weren’t in imminent danger.