Wing walker's plane crashes at Dayton Air Show

DAYTON, Ohio A plane carrying a wing walker crashed Saturday as she sat on top of the inverted plane at the Dayton Air Show, CBS Dayton affiliate WHIO-TV reports.


The 450 HP Stearman burst into flames when it hit the ground just before 1 p.m. A fire truck was at the crash site within seconds, and the flames have been extinguished. The conditions of wing walker Jane Wicker and her pilot were unknown.


"All of a sudden I heard screaming and looked up and there was a fireball," Stan Thayer of Wilmington, Ohio, told WHIO-TV.


Shawn Warwick of New Knoxville, Ohio, said he was watching the plane through binoculars.


"I noticed it was upside-down really close to the ground; she was sitting on the bottom of the plane," Warwick told WHIO-TV. "I saw it just go right into the ground and explode."


His wife was getting a drink when the crash happened.


"I came back, and everybody was just in shock," Cara Warwick told the affiliate.


Many spectators were already leaving when show organizers canceled the show for the day at 1:30 p.m.


The show announcer encouraged parents to move children away from the crash scene.


The act was the third of the day at the 39th Dayton Air Show.


Veteran stunt pilot Jim LeRoy was killed when his stunt plane crashed and burned at the 2007 Dayton Air Show.