LONDON: A British air force pilot has died after a Spitfire aircraft crashed on Saturday into a field in eastern England, police and the Royal Air Force (RAF) said.
The fighter aircraft was part of a commemoration of the Battle of Britain at RAF Coningsby, in Lincolnshire, the Guardian newspaper reported.
"Awful news to see the life of a serving RAF pilot cut short in this tragic event. My thoughts are with their family and loved ones," Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on social media.
The unidentified pilot was the sole occupant of the aircraft and was declared dead at the scene, Lincolnshire Police said in a statement.
It said nobody else was thought to have been injured as a result of the accident and that investigations were ongoing into the cause.
In a statement, RAF Coningsby said: "It is with great sadness that we must confirm the death of an RAF pilot in a tragic accident near RAF Coningsby today.
"The pilot's family have been informed and we ask that their privacy is respected at this difficult time."
The crash happened days before wartime aircraft will take to the skies to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the June 6, 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy.
More than 20,000 spitfires were built in the 1930s and 40s and the deft, manoeuvrable plane played a key role in defending the United Kingdom from attacks by Germany’s Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain in 1940.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously paid tribute to the Battle of Britain airmen with the words: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
Only a few dozen airworthy spitfires remain, including six that belong to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. – AP/Reuters
