Spectators watched in horror today as a vintage biplane in a simulated World War I dogfight crashed at the upstate Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, killing the pilot.
“They were having a dogfight between a German plane with two wings that was called the Red Baron and an Allied plane – English or American,” said Post photographer Frank Ross, who was at the show south of Albany in Dutchess County.
“One plane was tailing the other, and all of a sudden, the Red Baron dipped and went straight down.”
“We all thought it was part of the act,” Ross said. “Then all we saw was black smoke.”
The pilot was not immediately identified.