Most of us in the military have done our share of wazzing and zooming in the past and lived to tell the tale - why? - because we left ourselves some margin for error and knew when to knock it off.
Unfortunately, some young men will always think they are better at things than they really are and believe themselves to be gods of aviation - you could call it the Top Gun syndrome. The same attitude kills lots of young people in cars every year but shouldn't kill people in military aircraft because the training and supervision should prevent a pilot who is incapable of exercising judgement and self-monitoring from being in charge of an aircraft.
There were lots of other factors in this tragic accident and lots of opportunities for any of the crew or pax to prevent it but it still comes down to the numbskull with his hands on the controls trying to perform manoeuvres he was not skilled enough for and which were wholly inappropriate for the task in hand.