This one is for all you aviation junkies out there.

The US Air Force Arizona National Guard released declassified footage (oooh) of a student pilot undergoing training in an F-16 jet fighter – and thank the higher heavens for autopilot.

You see, while Tesla and others are slowly introducing their self-driving cars, autopilot aeroplanes have long been a thing. Here’s what went down, according to Verge:

As the pilot attempts a roll, his body is subjected to about eight times the normal force of gravity, causing him to blackout. The plane begins to take a nosedive toward the ground with its afterburner engine still firing at full tilt.

The student was accompanied by an instructor in a separate F-16 who then began to desperately shout commands to his unconscious student. According to a report at Aviation Week, the student’s jet drops from an altitude of 17,000 feet down to 12,320 feet as the command “2 recover” can be heard across the communications link. Then again at 10,800 feet, we hear the instructor calling to his student “2 recover.” The student’s jet plummets another 2,000 feet down and the instructor calls again, before the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto-GCAS), takes over and rights the jet.

Pretty deep, hey? Here’s the recording:

Yoh, I sure am glad I don’t have to go through that.

[source:theverge]