I just heard on the news that the downward spin was part of the act, but the pilot failed to pull up in time.. amazing no one died/was seriously injured.

It might just be the audio, but it sounds like the engine stalled for a few seconds, and the pilot didn't have enough time to pull up after re-starting it.

I appreciated the slide-show after the video of the wreckage. Crazy everyone walked away.

I have pilots in my family, so I've been to my share of airshows: The downward spin (sorry, don't know the name) was an intentional stunt. The second poster is correct, his engine definitely cuts out 2/3rds of the way down. He was able to restart it but not in time (though that's probably what saved lives there).

True! Considering that he'd have to be a highly skilled pilot to be pulling those types of maneuvers, it is very likely that the engine failed on him, and caused the crash.

*eia

though I should point out that in this case, nature selected for pure awesome as the guy walked away to spread his genes...

Adding video to channels (Eia) - requested by ponceleon.

Wow, lucky no one was on that part of the bike path at time! What's crazy is you can hear the crunch of metal and screeching tires of the actual collision.

looks like he alllll most pulled out.

*wheels

Adding video to channels (Wheels) - requested by MrFisk.