The incident occurred at the Beja Air Show
Lisbon:
Two small planes collided mid-air on Sunday during an air show in southern Portugal, the Air Force said, with media reporting that one of the pilots died.
“The Air Force regrets to inform that at 16:05 (15:05 GMT), at the Beja Air Show, two planes were victims of an accident during an aerial demonstration” involving six aircraft, it said in a brief statement.
Portuguese media reported that the pilot of one of the aircraft had died.
They identified the aircraft as two Yakovlev Yak-52s, a Soviet-designed aerobatic training model.
The Air Force reported that emergency services were at the scene and that the organizers of the show at Beja airport suspended the event.
A video filmed by a bystander and posted on social media showed a formation of six planes in flight, with one of them rising, apparently touching one of the others and then falling to the ground.
Accident at the Beja Air Show DEP pic.twitter.com/4WrRfoLCeO
– Don Caro ✞ (@kar0____) June 2, 2024
Portuguese newspapers cited witnesses who stated that the six aircraft were part of an aerobatic group called “Yak Stars”.
They said event organizers billed it as the largest civil acrobatics group in southern Europe.
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