WARSAW, Poland – A small plane lost control and plunged into a river Saturday as it performed stunts at an air show in Poland. The pilot, the only person on board, was killed.
The accident occurred in Plock, in central Poland, as people gathered by the Vistula River for a picnic and the air show.
The news station TVN24 broadcast images of the small plane doing aerobatics when it began spewing out plumes of dark smoke and then plunged into the water.
Rescue workers pulled the pilot from the wreckage and tried to resuscitate him before sending him to a hospital. Several hours later, a hospital official said the pilot, Marek Szufa, died.
The pilot was alone in the plane, a Christen Eagle II, a popular single-engine aircraft used for aerobatic flying. TVN24 identified Szufa as a pilot for the Polish airline LOT and the runner-up in a Poland-wide aerobatics championship.
The director of the Air Club of Mazovia that organized the show, Slawomir Adamkowski, said the cause of the crash was under investigation.