TEMORA and the aviation industry have been shocked at the death of four-time Australian aerobatic champion and aviation museum treasurer Tom Moon in a flying accident at the town’s airfield yesterday.Mr Moon, 51, died instantly when his single-engine Extra 300s plummeted into the ground next to a runway and burst into flames at 10.20am.An unconfirmed report said the single-engine light plane went into a corkscrew and crashed next to a runway.It is believed Mr Moon, Australian National Aerobatic Champion in 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2003, was performing aerobatic tricks before the crash.Mr Moon, a partner in Sydney chartered accountancy firm MoonCunningham, was a good friend of the Temora Aviation Museum founder and governing committee president, David Lowy.He was the only person in the aircraft.Police fielded several emergency calls about the incident and some of the earliest calls reported the plane was on fire and the pilot was deceased.Emergency services, including police from as far away as Wagga, Ganmain and Junee, the Temora fire brigade, Ambulance and State Emergency Service were alerted to the crash but it was obvious from the earliest moments nothing could be done to save the pilot.The airport was closed, a police command post was established and the Air Transport Safety Bureau advised of the accident.Police and others were warned to stay upwind of the burnt plane because ash from its carbon and glass fibre structure was believed to be toxic.The president of the Temora Aero Club, Robert Maslin, was in the organisation’s clubhouse at the airfield when he was alerted to the crash by people who ran into the building.He said he did not hear or see the crash.“We are all very sad about this,” Mr Maslin.“It’s very tragic.”The plane came down near the popular Temora Aviation Museum where thousands of people over recent years have marvelled at aerobatic tricks performed by Mr Moon.Temora mayor, Peter Speirs, expressed condolences to Mr Moon’s family and the aviation community.“As a community we are shell- shocked,” said Councillor Speirs, who saw Mr Moon’s plane in the air from Temora’s main street on Monday.“Tom has been a familiar sight associated with the aviation museum from day one,” Cr Speirs said.“He was an accountant in ‘real life’ but his passion has been aviation and aerobatics and we are all the much richer for him sharing that with us.”It was not immediately known why Mr Moon was flying at Temora yesterday, but Cr Speirs said he could have been practising for the aviation museum’s next flying weekend on January 31 to February 1 or for an upcoming aerobatics championship.