A small plane has crashed into the sea in front of hundreds of people gathered at a beach in southern France.
The Fouga Magister plane came down shortly before 5pm local time during a performance at the Lavandou air show, with the pilot trapped inside.
A rescue operation quickly found the body of the 65-year-old, the prefecture and officials said.
Footage shows the vintage aircraft quickly hitting the water after descending in an arc.
Boats were in the water and the harbour at the time.
🔴 [ Urgent ] Un Fouga Magister du meeting aérien du Lavandou se crash en mer.
▫️Le Fouga Magister qui participait au show aĂ©rien qui prĂ©cède celui de la Patrouille de France s’est abĂ®mĂ© Ă proximitĂ© de la cĂ´te varoise.
Plus d’infos Ă venir.
VidĂ©o d’Agathe Govare pic.twitter.com/m5Ai7V0zCG
— air plus news (@airplusnews) August 16, 2024
The plane was part of a warm up act for the Patrouille de France, the precision aerobatics unit of the French Air Force, which was due to perform for the 80th anniversary of the Provence Landings.
The French Air Force said in a statement that the crash did not concern an aircraft of the airforce’s Patrouille de France aerobatics team but involved a Fouga Magister belonging to an association.
The show was cancelled due to the “tragic circumstances”, officials said.
The Fouga Magister CM-170 is a subsonic jet aircraft, initially intended for training military pilots but which can be used as a light assault aircraft, industry news website FL360 aero reports.
The French-designed aircraft was the former flagship aircraft used by the Patrouille de France from 1964 to 1980, and is not equipped with an ejection seat, the website adds.
“This Friday, August 16, 2024 around 5pm, during an airshow off the coast of Lavandou, a civil aircraft of the Fouga Magister type crashed into the sea,” the Maritime Prefect of the Mediterranean said in a statement.
“Rescue operations to find the pilot are currently being co-ordinated with the fire and rescue service and the Maritime Gendarmerie,” it added.
The airshow in the commune of Le Lavandou has been running since 2019.
On Wednesday, two French pilots died after two Rafale fighter jets collided in mid-air in eastern France, in a rare accident involving the country’s leading military jet.
A third pilot ejected following the crash over Colombey-les-Belles, a town in northeastern France.
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