This is the heart-stopping moment a fighter plane appears to lose control and flies straight towards the crowd at a Turkish airshow.
The aircraft can be seen rocking in the air before the pilot suddenly pulls the nose up just before it reaches the spectators.
The terrifying incident happened at the TEKNOFEST airshow in Adana, southern Turkey on October 3, local media has reported.
It is understood the near-miss occurred at the end of a demonstration flight by the SoloTurk, Turkey’s aircraft acrobatics team and involved a F-16 fighter jet.
According to reports, an investigation has now been launched into the incident with experts examining the aircraft’s video recordings and other flight information.
This is the heart-stopping moment a fighter plane appears to lose control and flies straight towards the crowd at a Turkish airshow
The aircraft can be seen rocking in the air before the pilot suddenly pulls the nose up just before it reaches the spectators
It is thought the F-16 may have suffered a flight-control system malfunction which led to an uncontrolled dive to which the pilot reacted.
One former fighter jet pilot told TWZ that the distance between the plane and the ground at its lowest point appeared to ‘a small number of wingspans.’
‘It might have been that the pilot wanted to do some form of hesitation roll and actually paused at 180 degrees — but even so that requires you to really hawk your velocity vector,’ the pilot added.
MailOnline has contacted TEKNOFEST for comment.
The SoloTurk F-16 display is one of the best-regarded on the European circuit and has a strong safety record.
As of March 2023, the team consisted of two pilots, two support personnel and nine maintenance staff.
It comes as a Second World War airshow pilot died when his plane crashed into the sea in front of horrified spectators in France in August.
French authorities confirmed his body was found on the evening of August 16 after an intensive search off the coast of Le Lavandou, near Saint Tropez.
The pilot, who was not named, was thought to be flying a Fouga Magister aircraft at the Patrouille de France air show commemorating the 80th anniversary of Provence Landings in 1944.
The aircraft can be seen shooting across the sky at speed before crashing into the water and narrowing missing several boats.
French authorities launched an inquiry to examine the cause of the crash.
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