Thousands of spectators were looking on when the light aircraft plummeted towards the water off the coast of Herne Bay, in Kent, at 3.30pm, in a patch of water where there were not any swimmers.
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“The wheels dug into the water and the plane just flipped”.
Spectators rushed into the shallow water and lifted the plane back up before dragging the pilot to safety.
“Then the nose hit the surface of the sea and the plane flipped right over with the pilot upside down”.
The single-seater plane was forced into the water at around 3.30pm – and an hour after the Red Arrows had given their display.
“I thought he was in trouble, so I took a series of shots of what happened”.
“I saw about a dozen people going into the water which was very heroic, bearing in mind the pilot was underwater and struggling to get out”.
A pilot managed to avoid a bad accident today after he ditched his plane into the sea while performing at an airshow.
“If they hadn’t flipped the plane over quickly it could have been a lot worse”.
“Officers are at the scene with partner agencies including the South East Coast Ambulance Service (Secamb), HM Coastguard and The Royal National Lifeboat Institution”. The police and fire brigade also attended.
Finally he ditches into the briny, but his plane immediately flips over due to the drag on the undercarriage.
The air show said on its Facebook page that the incident involved the Turbulent Display Team, and confirmed that the pilot suffered minor injuries.
‘The Air Accidents Investigation Branch has been informed’.
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Safety at air shows was stepped up in the wake of the Shoreham air disaster past year, where 11 people were killed and 16 injured when a Hawker Hunter aircraft plummeted into a busy road.
