Pilots killed at Canadian air show as two biplanes collide
Witnesses said one plane came from beneath and collided with the second craft. Both burst into flames and crashed.
No spectators were hurt, but the air show in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, was immediately cancelled after the accident.
The pilots were members of the US-based Masters of Disaster civilian aerobatics team. A third plane involved in the dogfight simulation landed safely.
Clive Tolley, executive director of the air show, said Canada’s Transport Safety Board would be launching an investigation into the crash.
“It was a civilian performance that has been practised many, many times and done in a safe manner many, many times,” Mr Tolley said.
Some relatives of the dead pilots had been at the air show and were taken to a nearby military base while officials tried to notify family members in the United States.
Additional information on the pilots was not immediately available.
On its website, the Saskatchewan Air show said three planes were involved in the performance.
The X-Team planes that collided were named Samson, a 450- horsepower biplane, and Waco, which has two power plants, including a jet engine.
The plane named Bulldog, a 400 horsepower biplane, landed safely.
Meanwhile, in the US, two small planes in training for a performance collided above Delaware Bay, killing one pilot.
Rescue crews retrieved one body and divers searched the waters near Cape Henlopen State Park for the other pilot but were unable to locate the plane’s wreckage.
The two had been part of a six-plane formation of experimental “homemade kit” planes that took off from Sussex County Airport in Washington DC.
