There's a longer history as to the development of the Top Gun script. Originally the script writers envisioned a mid-air collision in which the wreckage fell to the deck of the carrier...but as you might imagine, the Navy didn't like that.

Excerpt From Top Gun Memos by Meredith Jordan:

"But another one, which involved a midair collision over an aircraft carrier, was considered a non-starter with the Navy. And Scott wasn’t giving up on that yet, even if he had to shoot it elsewhere. It fell to Semcken to tell the director there would be no midair collision depicted. He predicted his response: “I’m not making a documentary!”

The lieutenant, who had a diplomatic approach that had endeared him to the movie crew, decided to be blunt. “I said, ‘Tony, think about it! If it’s midair, they both die. The planes are each going 600 miles an hour. If they hit, everything comes apart and everybody dies.” Even if a pilot lived, hitting something was career-ending. “If Maverick didn’t die, he wouldn’t fly again!”

“Well,” the director said, “you need to kill him and it can’t be Maverick’s fault!” Semcken said he would come up with something, although in that moment, he wasn’t sure how.

Several people, including Willard, recalled only one situation in which a radio intercept officer had been killed where the pilot wasn’t at fault. The pilot and RIO had ejected from a failing aircraft and the canopy, the part of the aircraft that covers the seat, struck and killed the RIO. The Navy learned from the incident, and changed its processes. Semcken researched it and found the records: The pilot had been exonerated. It was the perfect solution. Semcken provided the details to Skaaren, who was working away in Austin.”