Pierre Holländer (1943-2003) was one of Europe's most popular and experienced show pilots. The fatal crash in his "Spirit of St Louis" replica is an immense tragedy.
The air crash on Coventry Classic Airshow -02 June 2003 It was a sweltering day at the start of summer but it was not difficult to feel the chill of horror as spectators realised what had just happened.
The drama unfolded very suddenly, shortly before 5pm, after more than an hour of exciting displays, which included Canberras, a Spitfire, a Gloucester Meteor, Percival Prentice and a Twin Pioneer. Many had missed the crash as they watched what was happening directly over the airfield, but one shout of "it's crashed, it's gone down" had hundreds flocking in disbelief to perimeter fencing, craning to see what had happened.
Emergency services were on the scene within seconds and the airport's yellow helicopter ambulance was scrambled almost immediately. Although Mr Hollander was whisked to hospital incredibly quickly, he was very badly injured and, sadly, later died. /BBC.
0 
