A single-engine GILES 202 aerobatic plane that was practicing Friday afternoon for the Stewart Airport air show scheduled for this weekend, crashed killing the pilot.
The plane had climbed when it experienced an apparent structural failure when the tail broke off and it crashed to the ground next to the main runway in a wooded area on Town of New Windsor property immediately adjacent to the airport.
State Police Capt. Brendan Casey is the air show incident commander.
“He was going through practice maneuvers,” Casey said. “It looked like he was in some type of a climb at the time. It was some type of aerobatic maneuver.”
The pilot, Andrew Wright of Austin, Texas, was the only person onboard.
The State Police, FAA and National Transportation Board are investigating.
The Stewart Air National Guard’s Crash, Fire and Request Squad, which handles all emergencies on the civilian and military sides of the airport, responded to the crash site.
The remainder of the practice activities were cancelled on Friday. Airport officials said the air show will go on as scheduled.
The crash at Stewart was the third fatal inciddent in a week at air shows worldwide. The others happened in England and Switzerland.
