25 years ago stunt plane crashed: 10 dead and 58 injured

Then 10 people were killed and 58 injured after a Jordanian pilot crashed his plane after a botched stunt. The man was killed, nine other bystanders also lost their lives. Several dozen other people were injured, some quite seriously. Ostend airport never again became the setting for an international air show.

View here some reports from our archive, with interviews of eyewitnesses and relatives of the victims.

The Red Cross emergency team that was on standby that day was also badly hit. Gino Henderyck was then 27 years old and a friend of one of the fatalities in the Red Cross tent. “It was a very beautiful day. It was sunny. A lot of people. There was a nice atmosphere for the spectators too. I was on the platform, together with people from the fire brigade. And we saw that plane go up. We saw it make some tumbles. the second time we saw him pull up again and suddenly we didn’t see him anymore.”

Pilot Omar Bilal’s stunt plane crashed into the tarmac near the Red Cross aid station. Thousands of people saw it happen before their very eyes. “That is immediately smoke and fire, screams from the people you heard. The panic and screams of the people, those are things you don’t forget. For us at the Red Cross that had something extra. The fact that that plane ended up at our aid station. In our tent in our minibus.”

Gino knew all the people working in the first aid tent. Also the young Danny Hamers who died as an 18-year-old aid worker from the Red Cross.