Pilot Dies After Madrid Airshow Crash: Cause Still Unknown (Video)

Hispano Aviación HA200 Saeta public domain
Hispano Aviación 200 Saeta – copyright Garrapata, public domain

Sad news from a monthly airshow at Madrid’s Cuatro Vientos airfield this weekend, where the crash of an Hispano HA-200 Saeta plane took the life of the pilot.

35-year-old Ladislao Tejedor Romero was in the middle of a high-speed, low-altitude maneouvre when the plane hit a telegraph pole. One of the wings was knocked off the plane and it plummeted out of control into an aircraft hangar.

Romero was cut out of the wreckage of the plane by rescuers who arrived on the scene while the plane was still on fire, but he died in hospital several hours later due to extensive burns.

Several people who tried to pull him from the plane were also treated in hospital for burns and smoke inhalation.

Romero was not only an extremely experienced pilot, he was also an F-18 test pilot in the Spanish Royal Air Force. That is why organizers of the monthly Sunday airshow are unsure as to whether the accident was caused by pilot error or if a mechanical problem was possibly to blame.

More than 3,000 spectators witnessed the crash.

Not for the squeamish, but there is a video of the Madrid airshow plane crash plus photos taken afterwards from someone at the Real Aeroclub de Zaragoza below. Very sad indeed.