Air Show Tragedy

I've always had this weird memory from when I was little... maybe 4 or 5 years old, of being at one of the air shows to which my dad used to take my mom and I. Over the years, I've sometimes wondered if it was a partially made-up memory, in which I conflated the time I got my first bee sting (at another air show), the pilots doing their stunt flying, and maybe a crash I saw on TV.

In it, we watched one of the planes perform some tricks, and my dad was telling me about how the pilot was a woman, which was somewhat of a novelty back then. He told me all about the names of whatever trick she was doing as she did it, and it was really cool. Eventually, I watched her plane fly low over the crowd, tilt almost vertically upwards and ascend briefly, and then spiral down into the end of the runway with a loud, heavy WHUMP. Almost instantly, the wreckage exploded into flames.
I looked up and around, and asked my parents, "Was that supposed to happen?" and "Where's the parachute?" Of course, there wasn't one. I had just watched someone die right in front of me. I remember processing this and knowing exactly what it meant, even at that age.

Anyway, I finally remembered to ask my dad about it today, and all I asked was, "Didn't we see someone crash at an air show once?" and he recounted this story EXACTLY as I'd remembered it, so apparently I'd retained all the details of that day with no embellishment at all. Weird... some part of me really did think I might have imagined some or all of it. What a peculiar thing to have witnessed.

I can't imagine why I won't get in a small plane, even for a bag full of emeralds.