[National] Air Force plane crashes during Suwon air show

After a plane crashed onto the ground, swirling smoke rises into the sky at the accident site. By YTN

A South Korean Air Force aerobatics plane crashed Friday at Suwon Air Base, south of Seoul, during an aerial display to celebrate Children's Day, air base officials said.

They said one A-37 plane belonging to the Air Force's 'Black Eagle' aerobatic flight team crashed on the runway of the air base at 11:51 a.m. during an aerial display that began at 11:30 a.m.

The pilot of the plane, identified only by the surname Kim, was killed, but no casualties were reported among the spectators, they said.

One witness said that the plane impacted the ground about 300 meters away from a spectator stand.

"The 33-year-old Kim, an Air Force captain, failed to escape from the cockpit and probably held on to the control stick out of fear of the plane crashing into the spectator stand," he said.

The officials explained that the plane sustained damage when one of its wings clipped that of another aircraft while both were attempting to perform an X-shaped cross maneuver at an altitude of about 700 meters.

The air show was held as part of the Air Force's efforts to celebrate the 84th Children's Day. About 3,000 picnickers, mostly children, were gathered around the air base runway to watch the air show.

The Air Force immediately called off the event after the accident.

The Black Eagle team suffered a similar mid-air collision during an air show rehearsal in Chuncheon, east of Seoul, in 1998. (Yonhap News Agency)