The incident took place during the Beja Air Show
Lisbon:
Two small planes collided in mid-air during an air show in southern Portugal on Sunday, the air force said, with media reporting that one of the pilots was killed.
“The Air Force regrets to announce that at 4:05 pm (1505 GMT) at the Beja Air Show, two aircraft suffered an accident during an aerial demonstration” involving six aircraft, the air force said in a short statement.
Portuguese media reported that the pilot of one of the planes had been killed.
They identified the planes as two Yakovlev Yak-52, a Soviet-designed aerobatic training model.
The air force said emergency services were on the scene and show organizers at Beja airport had suspended the event.
A video filmed by an onlooker and posted to social media showed a formation of six planes in flight, one of which took off, apparently hit one of the others and then crashed to the ground.
Accident Beja Air Show šØš DEP pic.twitter.com/4WrRfoLCeO
ā Don Duur šŖš¦ ā šø (@kar0____) June 2, 2024
Portuguese newspapers quoted witnesses as saying the six planes were part of an aerobatic group called the “Yak Stars”.
They said the event organizers presented it as the largest civilian aerobatic group in southern Europe.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
