Someone did die during the filming of the original Top Gun. It was a pilot carrying the cameras filming the aerial scenes.
The movie Top Gun was indeed dedicated to the memory of Art Scholl.
Art Scholl, famed aerobatic pilot and aerial cameraman, having worked
in over 50 productions
September 16, 1985, about 5:30 PM, Pacific Time
Weather Clear to partly hazy, with low clouds
Flight Route: Local area flight from Oceanside
Area Believed Crashed: The Pacific Ocean, near Carlsbad, California.
Reason for flight: Filming background shots for the gimbal apparatus,
used on sound stages, for the movie, Top Gun.
Type Plane: An Aerotec Pitts "Special" S-2A, registered as N13AS
After successfully completing an upward spin in his aerobatic Pitts
"Special" S-2A, Scholl attempted an inverted flat spin. While
descending rapidly in the spin, and at an altitude of 3,000 feet, he
uttered, "I've got a problem." Shortly later,, at an altitude of 1,500
feet, he spoke his last known words... "I've really got a problem."
Rescue aircraft and vessels recovered only some floating debris, and
it was speculated that the aircraft sank to a depth of over 900 feet
about five miles off Encinitas.
Although Scholl's mechanic, Kevin Kammer, witnessed the crash, the
exact cause of the fatal crash remains unknown, as neither the plane,
nor Scholl's body, was ever recovered.
It is generally thought that camera equipment affixed to the plane
altered its weight and balance envelope, making recovery from the flat
spin impossible. None of Scholl's spotter planes witnessed the
impact.
I use to hang out at FlaBob while stationed at Norton AFB and found
Art easy to talk with... I caught his Chipmunk routines at Norton at
USGP of MotoCross Carlsbad and at Reno Air Races... I just mesmerized
by his signature "Lomcovak" maneuver where he tumbles the Chippy out
of control... I was just devastated when Art spun in during the
filming of Top Gun...