Pilot Killed Trying to Break Aviation Speed Record

Filed in archive Aviation News on July 23, 2007

Pilot Hans Georg Schmid, a former Swissair pilot, was killed on Monday when the small "experimental" plane he was flying crashed into an apartment building in Basel, Switerland. Schmid was attempting to break the aviation speed world record by reaching Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 30 hours.

The crash happened at 11:25 a.m., shortly after the single-engine plane took off from EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, located across the border in France, authorities said. It went through the attic of an apartment building in the northwest of the city before coming to a fiery rest on a playground in a park.

The pilot was identified as Hans Georg Schmid, a former Swissair pilot who racked up more than 16,000 hours of flight experience during three decades at the former national carrier. His body was found in the park, said Klaus Mannhart, spokesman for Basel cantonal (state) police.

Schmid was trying to break a world record for a solo single-engine flight over 4,970 miles by reaching the U.S. city of Oshkosh, Wis. in 30 hours. The plane was fueled by 450 gallons of kerosine, airport spokeswoman Sabrina Walter said.

"There was a loud bang," said Silvia Kalman, an adult supervisor taking care of 19 children who were at the playground when the plane crashed. A jungle gym burst into flames, she said. Hours later, the playground was still littered with debris and the plane's wreckage.

Schmid designed the plane, called the "Express 2000 ER," and was planning later this year to use it to fly around the world twice later this year, according to Lycoming Engines, the Williamsport, Pennsylvania-based company that built the engine.

The pilot previously has set world records circumnavigating the globe in both eastbound and westbound directions, using an earlier homemade plane he designed. His new attempts would have been northbound and southbound, crossing the North Pole and Antarctica on each trip, Lycoming says on its Web site.

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