Plane crashes to the ground during airshow in Australia; pilot critically injured

The crash happened before a crowd of spectators who were attending the first public day of the event. The pilot was the sole occupant of the small aircraft.

Pilot airlifted to Melbourne hospital

Following the crash, he was airlifted to Melbourne's Alfred Hospital, Ambulance Victoria said. Footage aired by local media outlets showed the plane going into a vertical loop, ostensibly as part of a planned manoeuvre, and crashing onto the ground while diving towards the tarmac. The aircraft was a part of the Paul Bennet Aerobatics Team.

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Here's what eyewitnesses on Melbourne plane crash

«He didn't just nosedive, like he kind of hit his belly,» an eyewitness was quoted as saying by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The person, named Andrew Pearce, also said that the planes flown by other Paul Bennet members continued to remain in the air as they were unsure if it was safe to land.

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«I was sort of more watching the three, but the one that was by itself caught my eye,» Geoff Crane, another spectator at the airshow, stated. The pilot sustained serious injuries in the upper and lower body, The Sydney Morning Herald reported citing Ambulance Victoria's statement.
Taking note of the crash, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said it was deploying a team of specialists to probe the incident. ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said the investigators would go through the available flight tracking data, pilot and aircraft maintenance logs, and weather data as part of the probe, ABC said in its report. The identity of the pilot involved in the crash was not released immediately.

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