Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on AVweb.com.
The pilot of a Piper Pawnee was killed Saturday, Sept. 2, when the aircraft broke up during a sharp pull up for a gender reveal stunt in Sinaloa, Mexico.
Video of the crash shows the aircraft approaching the expectant couple spraying pink powder or fluid, signifying the birth of a girl. When the aircraft pulls out of a shallow dive overhead, the left wing folds into the fuselage and the airplane rolls into a crash beyond the couple’s party site.
News outlets reported that the 32-year-old pilot, Luis Angel N., was found in the wreckage but later died at a hospital.
This is the second fatal gender reveal crash in as many years in Mexico. In April 2021, two pilots were killed when the Cessna 206 they were flying in a gender reveal stunt crashed into the water in Cancun. Two occupants of an Air Tractor were luckier when the aircraft got slow, stalled and crashed during a gender reveal stunt in Turkey, Texas. The pilot wasn’t injured and a passenger suffered only minor injuries.
