Pilot Killed in Iowa Air Show Crash as Horrified Crowd Watches

An air show pilot was killed Saturday during a performance in Davenport, Iowa when he failed to pull out of a 45-degree bank and crashed into a field as a horrified crowd watched.

The Quad-City Times reported the pilot had been flying in formation with two other retired military jets as part of the annual Quad-City Air Show when his plane went directly into the ground.

"He never had an opportunity to come out of it," Assistant Davenport Police Chief Don Schaeffer said at a news conference.

The pilot, part of the Hoppers Flight Jet Team, was not immediately identified, but Schaeffer said he was not from Davenport. No one else was aboard the plane.

Nobody on the ground was hurt, but thousands of spectators saw a huge fireball go up from the site of the crash.

Investigators planned to comb the field for wreckage, which Schaeffer estimated was strewn over an area up to 220 yards.