List of Air Show Accidents and Incidents - 2001

2001

• June 4 – (Rouen, France) – Pilot Martin Sargeant was killed while making an emergency landing in his Supermarine Spitfire, due to engine failure. He tried to land on the designated emergency grass strip, but it was occupied by spectators. In an attempt to turn to a hard runway, his aircraft stalled and crashed.
• June 3 – During the Biggin Hill Airshow a 1944 Bell P63 Kingcobra crashed killing the pilot, former Red Arrow Guy Bancroft-Wilson. The American World War II fighter aircraft had been flying an unplanned sequence, when the pilot lost control at the top of a climbing manoeuvre and was unable to recover from the resulting dive. The aircraft impacted the ground to the west of the runway in a steep nose down attitude. The incident was captured on video.
• June 2 – During the Biggin Hill Airshow a vintage de Havilland Vampire jet crashed, killing both pilots. The Vampire had been flying a display in tandem with a Sea Vixen, the likely cause of the accident was that the Vampire's flight path had been disrupted by wake turbulence from the larger aircraft.