The incident took place around 7:25 p.m. local time, with Polish interior minister Tomasz Siemoniak having since confirmed the pilot’s death.

He has also been identified as Major Maciej Krakowian in a statement from the General Command of the Polish Armed Forces.

Krakowian was the leader of the display team and, just this month, was awarded the ‘As the Crow Flies’ trophy by aviation enthusiasts who determined that he’d given the “best overall flying demonstration” at the world’s biggest military air show, the Royal International Air Tattoo.

Krakowian was an instructor at the 31st Tactical Air Base near Poznan and had over 1,000 flying hours with the F-16, which belonged to the base.

A video of the crash posted to Twitter/X shows the aircraft executing a steep high-speed maneuver before plummeting into the tarmac and bursting into flames, leaving onlookers in panic.

An F-16 fighter jet crashed in Poland this Thursday, killing a pilot after it took to the air for a training flight ahead of the 2025 Random International Air Show.

The incident took place around 7:25 p.m. local time, with Polish interior minister Tomasz Siemoniak having since confirmed the pilot’s death.

He has also been identified as Major Maciej Krakowian in a statement from the General Command of the Polish Armed Forces.

Krakowian was the leader of the display team and, just this month, was awarded the ‘As the Crow Flies’ trophy by aviation enthusiasts who determined that he’d given the “best overall flying demonstration” at the world’s biggest military air show, the Royal International Air Tattoo.

Krakowian was an instructor at the 31st Tactical Air Base near Poznan and had over 1,000 flying hours with the F-16, which belonged to the base.

A video of the crash posted to Twitter/X shows the aircraft executing a steep high-speed maneuver before plummeting into the tarmac and bursting into flames, leaving onlookers in panic.

F-16 Fighter Jet Pilot’s Death “A Great Loss” For Poland