ROUEN, France (Reuters) - The British pilot of a World War Two Spitfire has died after his plane crashed into a field at an airshow in the Normandy region of France, in the third fatal airshow crash in as many days.

"Earlier we had seen smoke coming from his engine and the airport siren was rung. The pilot wanted to land on the runway, but at the last moment when he saw he would crash into the crowd, he swerved to avoid them," said fireman Yannick Bobin on Monday.

"The plane exploded on impact and was on fire when the firemen approached," he added.

French police named the dead pilot as 56-year-old Martin Sargeant. No further details were immediately available.

The pilot of a World War Two fighter was killed when his plane crashed and exploded at an air show near London on Sunday, the day after another aircraft crashed at the show killing two crewmen.

This bodes badly for airshows of the future methinks. Either the planes are getting too old or are not as well taken care for as they should, or pilots are not as well trained on them as they should. Or both.

This is truly sad.

S!

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"When you swim in the sea and an eel bites your knee, that's a moray..."

But insignificant compared to the loss of lives.