Ladislao Tejedor Romero identified as pilot dead in Madrid air show plane crash VIDEO
A historic jet plane crashed into a hangar and exploded in a fireball during an airshow near Madrid Spain Sunday, severely injuring its pilot who later died in the hospital, officials said.
A spokesman for Spain’s Defense Ministry said the pilot, Ladislao Tejedor Romero, age 35, an experienced jet pilot and assistant to Defense Minister Pedro Morenes, died of his injuries in the serious burns unit of Getafe hospital.
The plane, a HA-200 Saeta, was a built in the 1950s as an advanced jet trainer by Hispano Aviacion, ministry spokesman Alfredo Florenza said.
A crowd of 3,000 were onhand at the Cuatro Vientos airfield for the air show of aerial acrobatics and vintage aircraft when the plane, one of the first jet-propelled planes to be manufactured in Spain, crashed, sending a fireball and thick black smoke into the air.
Spain’s airport authority AENA said no one else other than the pilot was injured despite some other reports that one person suffered burns and a man suffered an anxiety attack (possibly the pilot’s father).
