7 die as fighter jet crashes in British airshow

LONDON — A fighter jet taking part in a British airshow Saturday crashed into a highway, killing seven people.

The crash took place at the Shoreham Airshow in West Sussex, on England’s southern coast, at 1:20 p.m. Video showed the jet soar, loop and then plunge before it could complete a second loop.

The plane crashed into a busy road, the A27, near the airfield where the show took place. Hours later, the police had no comment about the pilot’s fate.

Beyond the fatalities, one person was seriously hurt and 14 others had minor injuries, according to a statement from the Sussex Police.

“The casualties are all believed to have occurred on the road at this time, and there are not thought to be any injuries to anyone actually on the airfield,” the statement said.

The jet was a Hawker Hunter, a staple of the Royal Air Force during the Cold War.

A witness, Stephen Jones, told the BBC: “He’d gone up into a loop, and as he was coming out of the loop I just thought, you’re too low, you’re too low, pull up.”

He added, “He flew straight into the ground either on or very close to the A27, which runs past the airport.”

A large fireball engulfed a portion of the road.

The airshow is sponsored by the Royal Air Forces Association, a charity that aids service members and veterans.

The crash was the second at the airshow in recent years. In 2007, Brian Brown, a stuntman who had performed aerial stunts in movies includ- ing the James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies,” was killed when the World War II fighter plane he was flying crashed during the show.