LONDON -- An aerobatic stunt plane plummeted to the ground during a routine at a car and music festival in northwest England Saturday, killing the pilot.

Video shot by an eyewitness showed one jet in a two-plane team going into a steep dive and plowing into a wooded area during the CarFest event at the Oulton Park motor-racing track. Photos showed smoke rising from a field near the site, about 200 miles (320 kilometres) northwest of London.

DJ Chris Evans, who founded CarFest, said "one of the pilots involved in a synchro display lost his life."

He said that on the advice of police and accident investigators the weekend festival, attended by thousands of people, would continue.

The plane belonged to the Gnat Display Team, a charitable group that flies vintage Royal Air Force Gnat fighter jets.