Ramstein air show disaster occurred on Sunday , 28 August 1988 during the '' Flugtag ' 88 '' airshow at the United States ' Ramstein Air Base near Kaiserslautern , West Germany . Three aircraft of the Italian Air Force display team collided during their display , crashing to the ground in front of a crowd of about 300,000 people . There were 70 fatalities ( 67 spectators and 3 pilots ) ; 346 spectators sustained serious injuries in the resulting explosion and fire , and hundreds more had minor injuries . At the time it was the deadliest air show accident in history ( until overtaken in 2002 by the Sknyliv air show disaster ) . It is also the third deadliest aviation accident to happen on German soil , after the 1972 Königs Wusterhausen air disaster and the 2002 Überlingen mid-air collision
1972 Königs Wusterhausen air disaster
1972 Königs Wusterhausen air disaster
Ramstein air show disaster