Pilot Killed After Aerobatic Plane Crashes in a River During Airshow in Poland

[rabenson]

A small plane lost control and plunged into a river Saturday as it performed stunts at an air show in Poland.

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. It was not immediately clear if he survived.

The pilot was alone in the plane, a Christen Eagle II, a popular single-engine aircraft used for aerobatic flying. TVN24 identified the pilot as Marek Szufa, 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 it was too soon to draw conclusions about what caused the crash.

Update: Rescue divers managed to release Szufa from the plane’s cabin, by which time the pilot had been underwater for a number of minutes, emergency services report.

After attempts to reanimate the pilot on the banks of the river failed, Szufa was transported to hospital, where he was proclaimed dead after nearly an hour of further resuscitation attempts.

Organisers of the air show cancelled all further activities after the accident happened.

Marek Szufa was 57 years old, and had over 20,000 hours of flying experience.

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[Faline]

[Zahir82]

kaPOW!! That's gotta hurt!!

[fredstones]

That kind of ruins your whole day.

I hope they paid attention to the flight attendants and used their seat cushions for floatation devices.

[rabenson]

Here's a better video the pilot did die
<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KJpUXmIaHzc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[kellyhound]

rip

[schleifspur]

"....Jesus..... KURWA.....!!"

[etown780]

Shitty way to go out after pulling off those stunts wouldnt you think?? RIP

[pauldeathcore]

hello kelly how do u get a pic of me on here do u know please x

[Apfelbaum]

Why is it that in these countries the rescue services are so crap. They take too fucking long to get there and they do fuck all when they arrive. It's as if they want to see someone die.

People might complain about our obsession with health and safety in the UK, but if I had an accident, I know that I could rely on the emergency services to look and behave like they give a shit.