There is nothing unusual about a display being flown by a service pilot. Sadly, there is also nothing new about displays (some by company pilots, some by service pilots) ending in avoidable disasters when a fully serviceable aircraft, flying within its normal envelope in broad daylight and with an experienced pilot, strikes the ground. (Blackhawk, Farnborough 1974, A-10, Paris 1977, two Tigersharks...)
The Typhoon driver narrowly missed getting added to this list, and I'm wondering what we should all have learned from earlier accidents to avoid this sort of thing.
And it is certainly not the case that company pilots are immortal (cf Tigershark). However, if it's indeed the case that some operators/companies have a long and clean record it might be interesting to look at how they do it.