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The Paul Bennet Airshow pilot who crashed at Avalon remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital.
Glenn Collins was performing as part of the Sky Aces aerobatic team when his aircraft collided with the ground on Friday evening, immediately suspending all flying at the event.
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The incident led to gasps from the huge crowds as emergency services rushed to pull him from the wreckage and airlift him to hospital.
Flying at Avalon eventually resumed on Saturday at 1 pm and continued until the planned finish on Sunday.
“We would like to acknowledge the extraordinary level of support from medical staff as well as messages of support received from here and around the world,” said the Paul Bennet Airshows team on Saturday.
“Paul Bennet Airshows will not be performing at the Avalon Australian International Airshow but we hope the public continue to enjoy the world class event.”
The incident, which occurred at roughly 5:15 pm, took place well away from crowds, and no member of the public was injured.
Collins is a hugely experienced aerobatics pilot who, according to the Paul Bennet Airshow website, has clocked more than 2,700 flying hours.
He’s flown competition Aerobatics to Advanced level including becoming NSW and Australian Sportsman champion in 1997, Australian Intermediate champion in 1998 and Victorian Advanced champion in 1999.
His experience also includes skywriting, parachute displays and flying warbirds such as the Wirraway, Tiger Moth and Trojan.
“Aviation is a tight-knit community, and an incident like this affects us all,” said Justin Giddings, Avalon’s CEO.
“Our thoughts are with Paul Bennet Airshows pilot Glenn Collins, his family and his team during this difficult time.
“The Paul Bennet Airshows team are all highly skilled professionals who have participated in our airshows for many years, always with a focus on delivering an exciting but safe performance. We look forward to welcoming the team at future events.”
Aside from the incident, Avalon 2025 attracted more than 200,000 across its six days, including around 60,000 attendances across the three dedicated industry days.
The industry days included 902 participating exhibitor companies from 28 nations, plus 291 industry, defence and academic delegations from 43 countries.
This included 20 Chiefs of Air Force or equivalent, 18 international representatives and 7 US distinguished visitors.
Defence, meanwhile, flew displays from fast jet fighters, surveillance aircraft, large air mobility aircraft and warbirds the CAC CA-18 Mustang and the Supermarine Spitfire Mk VIII.
Partner nation aircraft also featured, with aerial displays from the United States Air Force F-22 Raptor and F-16 Fighting Falcon, Republic of Singapore aircraft and a German Air Force A-400M transport.
Torbjoern Kettel
says:By EASA definition this is not an incident but classified as an accident. I do not think CASA is any different.