Dilip Kuner
THE pilot of a small plane has been killed when he crashed while trying to make an emergency landing in Spain.
He had reported mechanical problems and was trying to make it to Noain-Pamplona airport (Navarra), when tragedy struck at 6:20pm yesterday.
The plane, which had taken off from Sabadell (Barcelona), crashed into a street at Number 4 Paseo de la Estación and burst into flames.
The aircraft came down a short distance from the runway, between the Mocholi industrial estate and the town of Noain, next to a railway track, according to the Regional Government.
Shortly before the accident the pilot, who has not been named, had put in a distress signal saying he had a problem in one of his engines.
Airport firefighters were alerted, but the pilot never made it to the runway.
The aircraft crashed into a car parked on the public road.
The occupant of a nearby house escaped unharmed.
Airport firefighters put out the blaze in the plane and recovered the body.
They had to wait for electricity company engineers to cut off the power to a line that was knocked onto the car before they could extinguish the flames that destroyed the vehicle.
