A Polish F-16 fighter jet crashed, and a renowned pilot was killed, during a training flight on Thursday ahead of the 2025 Radom International Air Show.
The accident occurred at around 7.25 pm on Thursday during a training flight of the Polish Air Force’s F-16 Tiger Demo aerial display team. The pilot was killed, according to former Polish interior minister, Tomasz Siemoniak.
A statement from the General Command of the Polish Armed Forces identified the pilot as flying ace Major Maciej ‘Slab’ Krakowian.
He was the leader of the display team and, earlier in August, was awarded the ‘As the Crow Flies’ Trophy by aviation enthusiasts for the “best overall flying demonstration” at the 2025 Royal International Air Tattoo, the world’s largest military airshow.
An experienced combat pilot with over 1,000 F-16 flying hours, Krakowian was an instructor at the 31st Tactical Air Base near Poznań. The General Command of the Polish Armed Forces said that on Thursday that the accident involved an aircraft from that airbase.
Krakowian was a graduate of the Aviation training institute in Dęblin and the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, where he studied for four years.
In addition to his display flying, Krakowian had also undergone specialist training and flown in numerous international missions, the Polish Armed Forces reported on its website.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, traveled to the scene of the disaster and briefed Poland’s Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, a government spokesman said.
“I am at the scene of the tragedy. In the F-16 plane crash, a pilot of the Polish Army lost his life – an officer who always served his homeland with dedication and great courage. I pay tribute to his memory. My deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. This is a great loss for the Air Force and the entire Polish Army,” Kosiniak-Kamysz, wrote on X, the social media platform.
It is the first F-16 aircraft disaster in the history of Polish aviation.
