If you weren't already afraid to fly, what follows will almost certainly make you feel that way.
At an airshow near Erfurt Germany, a 49-year-old airline pilot named Martino Waller decided to fly his 1950s-era Zlin 226 aircraft in an air formation. Waller, who trained pilots for a living, had no reason to suspect that this particular formation would be his last. Yet for reasons that remain unclear, he lost control of the plane, changing it from this:
The hideous and terrifying explosion occurred a scant 600 feet from the nearest observers, and miraculously, no one was hurt. It has been suggested that Waller might have deliberately tried to steer the plane away from those watching in order to save lives. If so, he was successful.
A local German station did a report on the event, which can be watched below:
Investigators are trying to discover what caused the plane to crash. However, this may be difficult to do, given what's left of Waller's doomed final flight.
H/T Daily Mail