The story about that plane is very intriguing. There is evidence to suggest that a French Mirage recon plane was taking pictures of it above the cloud layer at the air show. The Russian pilot, as he approached the clouds, saw the Mirage and took evasive action by pushing the nose of the plane down. This stalled the engines; to get them restarted he used a steep dive. This succeeded, but not before he had to pull up hard to avoid the ground, overstressing the airframe, which broke up in mid-air.
