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Ostend air disaster

26 Jul 1997 · Ostend

Extra 300 · The Ostend air disaster took place on 26 July 1997 during the International Airshow in Ostend

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Event

Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
Event fatalities
10 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
Unknown
InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
Unknown
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
Unknown

Extra 300

Aircraft type
Extra 300
Category
Airplane · from aircraft type
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
Unknown
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
10
Route
From not recordedTo not recorded

Approximate · Estimated position: Ostend, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.

From the Wikipedia article

The Ostend air disaster took place on 26 July 1997 during the International Airshow in Ostend. Ten people were killed, including the pilot.

Course of the disaster

There were about 50,000 spectators at the aerobatic display of the 'Royal Jordanian Falcons'. The Jordanian pilot, Omar Hani Bilal, came out of a horizontal spiral, in which he rotated seven times around his longitudinal axis, and wanted to transition into a loop. While pulling up the Extra 300 the aircraft engine abruptly stopped and the aircraft fluttered down out of control. In the last metres the pilot tried to get the aircraft under control and pull up again. However, the aircraft crashed a few metres from the public area. The Extra 300L exploded and slid like a fireball into a tent of the Belgian Red Cross, which stood just in front of the spectators.

Translated into English with AI assistance from the Dutch Wikipedia article “Vliegramp te Oostende” (revision 68826390, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article

Sources

Dutch Wikipedia article: Vliegramp te Oostende
Article
Vliegramp te Oostende
Translation
Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
Revision
68826390 · 2025-01-31 · retrieved 2026-09-19
Wikidata
Q18746634
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
Record
nl Wikipedia article "Vliegramp te Oostende" (page 4107239, revision 68826390), translated into English with AI assistance
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
Map position
place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata coordinates)
Aircraft, operator and route
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
Operation
not stated in the Wikipedia article's infobox or opening paragraph
Fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the Dutch Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.