An air show in Iowa turned deadly last night when a Soviet-era retired military jet crashed during a stunt. The unidentified pilot was killed during the crash.
According to the NY Daily News , the Soviet l-39 jet was performing at the Quad-City Air Show in Davenport, Iowa. The plane was flying in formation with other jets but failed to pull out of a 45-degree bank. Police are currently investigating the incident but at this time do not know what caused the crash.
According to Assistant Davenport Police Chief Don Schaeffer, the plane crashed in an empty field just north of Interstate 80. No one else was injured in the crash.
Police are currently searching the field to recover all the wreckage from the plane. Schaeffer said that some parts of the plane flew more than 200 yards from the crash site.
Schaeffer said:
“There are literally hundreds of pieces of debris scattered across the field…. We want to collect and catalog each piece so that if the FAA or some other investigating body wants to rebuild the plane, they can do it.”
The crash was witnessed by several people and was even caught on home video by one spectator.
A witness told ABC :
“He went down into the ground and he burst into flames … I was instantly in tears because I knew more than likely he didn’t survive.”
Here’s a video report from ABC .
