He was a world champion Red Bull stunt pilot, taking home first place in the Intermediate World Aerobatic Championships in 2014.

But during his performance at the 1st Silk Road International General Aviation Convention held at Danxia airport in China, Michel Leusch of Umhlanga’s plane spiralled out of control, killing him on site.

Leusch, 35, who was accepted as a permanent member of the Red Bull Firestar’s stunt team earlier this year, appeared to lose control during a dive and crashed into the Gobi desert about 100 metres away from the airport.

However, his family have since been watching the videos of the crash to figure out just what it was that went wrong on 27 August – and until the investigation is complete it’s all just speculation. Michael’s brother, Julien, said:

It looks like the plane went into a flat spin . The investigation will confirm what happened.

His father, Andre, said he received a call on Saturday and knew that something bad had happened.

It will take me a long, long time to come to grips with it.

Here’s the video – what do you suggest happened?

[source: timeslive&mirror]