Dallas Air Show: Two vintage planes collide

Two historic military planes collided and crashed to the ground during an air show in Dallas on Saturday, federal officials said. It is unclear how many people were on board, or if anyone was injured on the ground.

Anthony Montoya saw two planes collide.

“I was just standing there, in complete shock and disbelief,” said Montoya, 27, who attended the airshow with friends. “Everyone around us was out of breath. Everyone was suddenly in tears. Everyone was in shock.”

Paramedics rushed to the crash site at Dallas Executive Airport, about 10 miles from downtown Dallas.

Live television news footage from the scene showed people setting up orange cones around the crumpled wreckage of the bomber in the grass.

A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collided and crashed at about 1:20 p.m., the FAA said in a statement. The collision occurred during the Memorial Air Force Wings Show over Dallas.

The B-17 was a massive four-engine bomber that was the backbone of the United States Air Force during World War II. A US fighter, the King Cobra was used primarily by the Soviet military during the war. According to Boeing, most B-17s were scrapped at the end of World War II, with only a handful remaining today, mostly displayed in museums and air shows.

Some videos posted on Twitter appeared to show a fighter plane dove into the bomber, which immediately crashed to the ground and launched a large ball of fire and smoke.

Wings Over Dallas bills itself as “America’s premiere World War II air show,” according to the website promoting the event.The show is scheduled for Veterans Day weekend, November 11-13. and guests were to see more than 40 World War II-era aircraft.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board had launched an investigation.