Pilot killed during accident at Poland air show (AP)

WARSAW, Poland – A small plane lost control and plunged into a river Saturday as it performed stunts at an air show in Poland. The pilot, the only person on board, was killed.

The accident occurred in Plock, in central Poland, as people gathered by the Vistula River for a picnic and the air show.

The news station TVN24 broadcast images of the small plane doing aerobatics when it began spewing out plumes of dark smoke and then plunged into the water.

Rescue workers pulled the pilot from the wreckage and tried to resuscitate him before sending him to a hospital. Several hours later, a hospital official said the pilot, Marek Szufa, died.

The pilot was alone in the plane, a Christen Eagle II, a popular single-engine aircraft used for aerobatic flying. TVN24 identified Szufa as a pilot for the Polish airline LOT and the runner-up in a Poland-wide aerobatics championship.

The director of the Air Club of Mazovia that organized the show, Slawomir Adamkowski, said the cause of the crash was under investigation.

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16 pilot whales are stranded in shallow Florida waters

Early Friday morning, rescuers are able to move six of the whales to a safer placeThe whales are in danger of dying, rescuer saysAdult pilot whales can measure up to 20 feet long and weigh up to 3 tons

(CNN) -- Rescuers worked early Friday to save a group of pilot whales who stranded themselves in shallow waters near the Florida Keys.

There were more than 16 pilot whales stranded in an area about 20 miles north of Key West, said Art Cooper, the chairman of the Marine Mammal Conservancy.

By about 4 a.m. ET a team of about 50 people were able to get six of the whales into a safer area and were protecting them with a sea pen they had created, Cooper said.

The group of whales were spread out in about a four-mile area in waters that were as shallow as three inches in some areas.

The situation for the animals was dire because mass strandings can be a sign of some kind of sickness in some of the whales, Cooper said. Also being stuck in shallow waters make them vulnerable to predators.

"It is a bad situation for them when they get in the shallows and thrash around and bloody themselves," said Cooper. "If there is nobody to intervene for them they will die."

Karrie Carnes, of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also said the whales are in a perilous situation.

"It is highly likely that these animals are emaciated, that they are compromised," said Carnes.

Adult pilot whales can measure up to 20 feet long and weigh up to 3 tons. Due to their social nature, they are often involved in mass strandings, according to the American Cetacean Society. The ACS is a non-profit group based in California that works to protect whales, dolphins and porpoises, according to its website.

Last year, dozens of pilot whales died in northern New Zealand after 58 of them were stranded on a remote beach.

CNN's Lateef Mungin contributed to this report.

CNN

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