Licensed pilot Usman Khawaja is qualified to take the controls of jumbo jets - and England ran out of runway at Edgbaston because the Aussie opener parked the Airbus.
Now Ben Stokes will head to Lord's next week on a wing and a prayer that his best chance of recapturing the Ashes has not disappeared.
England's two-wicket defeat was agony for another sell-out crowd, millions clustered around the TV at home and those in transit struggling to find enough broadband width for score updates.
But for Stokes and his heartbroken players, the search for those two wickets was like waiting at a baggage carousel for luggage that never shows up.
Ultimately, it was Aussie skipper Pat Cummins' sensible aggression which carried Australia over the line. But the groundwork for a shattering England defeat was laid by Khawaja's 206 runs in the match.
Dropped seven times by Australia in his Test career, he announced his latest comeback with twin hundreds against England in Sydney 18 months ago. He took some shifting again.
After an eight-hour vigil for his 141 in the first innings here, Khawaja slipped into the cockpit for another long-haul journey and, for 318 minutes, he negotiated all the turbulence England could throw at him.
Admittedly this pitch was so docile that you wouldn't have found any life in it by detonating half a dozen sticks of dynamite on a good length.
But more than any batsman in the match, Khawaja looked like he had all the time in the world to remain composed amid the magic and mayhem of Bazball.
Authentic Test match batting still has its place in the game, and this fella's the proof. He wasn't distracted by Ollie Robinson's verbals and he didn't panic when wickets kept falling at the other end.
We thought Bazball couldn't possibly suffer a more cruel defeat than the one-run defeat in Wellington last winter – but we were wrong.
This is the Ashes, these are the Aussies. We'll never hear the end of it.
Yes, it was another fabulous advert for Test cricket, but Stokes will be struggling to find a quantum of solstice when the sun comes up after such a heartbreaking near miss.
It's unlikely that he will be declaring before close of play on the first day at Lord's.
It's unlikely that Moeen Ali's blistered spinning finger will heal enough in nine days for him to play in the second Test.
And to accommodate Mark Wood's extra pace, England will have to consider omitting Jimmy Anderson, who looked short of a gallop over the last five days, at the at the venue where he has taken 117 Test wickets, by far his happiest hunting ground.
