Octopussy plane pilot killed

A man piloting a small plane made famous in the James Bond film Octopussy died before horrified spectators when the jet crashed in flames during a practice session for a weekend air show.

Scott Manning, 48, was killed yesterday when his single-seat Stinger jet crashed at the end of the runway at Carp Airport, Ottawa. No spectators were injured.

Airshow organiser Barry Camm was watching Manning’s practice run from the control tower when the plane nosedived into the runway.

“We were just commenting on how well it was going when it just spiralled at the end of the runway,” Camm said. “He was just doing a pass – lowering and raising his landing gear,”

The crash is being investigated by Canada’s Transportation Safety Board.

Although Manning was a seasoned pilot, another pilot at the airport said the Stinger is notoriously difficult to fly.

“There’s only six of them in the world,” John Lobb said. “They do have a very high crash rate; they’re a very, very difficult jet to fly.”

The Stinger, or the BD5-J, is listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the smallest jet in the world, measuring just 12ft in length and with a wingspan of 17ft.

Whitney Zelmer, spokeswoman for the show, said Manning’s family wanted the public to know how much he loved aviation.

“This was his life,” Zelmer said. “He built his jet – it took him 6,000 manhours. His heart and soul was in it.”

The Stinger, which Manning’s website, MicroJet Canada, says has been used by the US government for secret radar testing, was made famous in the James Bond film Octopussy, starring Roger Moore.