Pilot practicing ahead of New York Air Show crashes, dies
Posted: Aug 28, 2015 6:45 PM CST | Updated: Aug 28, 2015 6:50 PM CST
(CNN)A single-engine aerobatic plane practicing ahead of an upcoming New York state air show crashed Friday, killing the pilot, police said.
The pilot lost control of the single seater and crashed into a wooded area abutting Stewart International Airport in New Windsor, a community about 70 miles north of New York City, State Police spokesman Steven Nevel said.
No one on the ground was injured.
Authorities did not immediately know what caused the pilot to lose control.
The crash took place one day before the scheduled start of the New York Air Show at the same airport.
The two-day event is set to feature numerous aircraft, including the U.S. military's F-22 Raptor, F/A18E Super Hornet, the AV-8B Harrier and a jump by the parachute team from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.
Follows deadly air show crash in England
Last Saturday, a Cold War-era military jet that was part of a southeastern England air show crashed into a busy highway, killing at least 11 people, British police said.
All of those dead had been on the A27 highway; the pilot was pulled from the wreckage and flown to a nearby hospital, Sussex police Superintendent Jane Derrick said.
The Hawker Hunter aircraft was flying a loop at the Shoreham Airshow -- an event put on the Royal Air Forces Association featuring vintage military aircraft -- when it nosedived.
Earlier this month, a member of the Army Golden Knights parachute team died after being injured during a performance at the Chicago Air and Water Show, authorities said.
The biggest air show mass casualty event in recent memory happened September 2011 in Reno, Nevada, where a P-51 Mustang slammed into the box seat area in front of the grandstand at the National Championship Air Races and Air Show.
Eleven people -- including the plane's 74-year-old pilot, Jimmy Leeward -- died.
