11 September 2006
<div id=newsfloatbox><div id=newsboxheader>Gabor Varga</div>Gabor Varga was well known around the European circuit. He was a world record holder (256 loops in an hour), and ran his own company – Fun Fly – in Sweden</div>Swedish aerobatics champion Gabor Varga was killed yesterday following a collision in the Aero Grand Prix of Malta, in which he was taking part.
The accident occured as Gabor Varga’s Yak appeared to overtake the Extra 200 of Irish competitor Eddie Goggins. Shortly after the Yak had passed underneath the Extra, the two aircraft converged, the Yak’s fuselage meeting the Extra’s wing. The collision took the tailplane section off the Yak, a situation from which Varga had no hope of recovery. His aircraft dived into the sea, from which his body was recovered quickly, but too late for rescuscitation.
Goggins was luckier: he managed to climb his aircraft to a height from which he could jump, before abandoning ship. His parachute is reported to have opened just above the water, and he swam to nearby rescue boats.
The race, which was the first of its kind to have been held in Malta, was cancelled after the incident.
<a href=’http://www.timesofmalta.com/core/article.php?id=236607′ target=’_blank’>The Malta Times </a>
