Two dead in crash at Moscow airshow

Moscow : Two crew members were killed Saturday after their Soviet-era biplane ploughed into the ground at an airshow near Moscow, local police said.

The vintage An-2 aircraft crashed as it was performing an aerial acrobatics routine in front of a crowd at an airfield near the satellite town of Balashikha on the edge of Moscow.

"We confirm the crash and that according to our preliminary information two people onboard were killed," a spokesman for the Moscow region police told AFP.

The spokesman said the plane came down in a field and no spectators were hurt. Police were at the scene working to establish the causes of the crash.

A source in the emergency services told TASS news agency that pilot error was viewed as the most likely cause of the crash.

Russian media published video it said was from eyewitnesses showing the Antonov propeller plane bursting into flames after hitting the ground and then thick black smoke pouring into the air.

The single-engine plane An-2 went into production shortly after World War II and was typically used for transport or crop dusting.