Well mixture, yourself and LIS suggesting its photoshopped are talking out of your holes. A simple compare and contrast with other images and video of the event elsewhere will show other photographers images with 'no pilot'. So unless theres a secret Jane-Doh type conspiracy that every snapper there colluded, via the every snapper knows every one else network, to all remove the pilot from their images, stills and every single video still image, theres a pretty good chance wysiwyg.
The guy who took that image was on assignment. So, right time, right place, right equipment, right settings, right skillset, right awareness, right image cropping, etc etc. But no, wait, it may be photoshopped and heres a whole list of ill thought out reasons for you to disregard, subject to doing a minutes thinking. I now await the 'disgust bus' to arrive full of complainers that the pro snapper was paid for taking these images, that are now being used to discuss the accident ...