Two planes collide and crash during Dallas Air Show

tomtidgewellNovember 12, 2022

Associated Press

LM Otello and Jill Breed

In this screenshot from a video shared to social media, two planes are seen before they collided mid-air in Dallas on Saturday, November 12, 2022. Photo by @GianKaizen /twitter

DALLAS — Two historic military planes collided and crashed to the ground on Saturday during an air show in Dallas, exploding into a ball of flame and sending a billowing plume of black smoke into the sky. It is unknown how many people were on board, or if anyone was injured on the ground.

Leah Bullock, a spokesperson for the Memorial Air Force, which produced the Veterans Day weekend show and owned the crashed aircraft, told ABC News that the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber had a crew of five. said he believed the P-63 King Cobra fighter had a crew of one. The Houston-based aircraft was not offering rides to paying customers at the time, she said.

Paramedics rushed to the crash site at Dallas Executive Airport, about 10 miles (16 km) from downtown. Live television news footage from the scene showed people setting up orange cones around the crumpled wreckage of the bomber in the grass.

Anthony Montoya saw two planes collide.

“I was just standing there. I was completely shocked and in disbelief,” said Montoya, 27, who attended the airshow with friends. “Everyone around me was gasping. Everyone was in tears. Everyone was in shock.”

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said the National Transportation Safety Board took control of the crash site with the assistance of local police and fire departments.

“The video is heartbreaking,” Johnson wrote on Twitter.

The video is heartbreaking. Please pray for the souls who took to the skies to entertain and educate our families today.

— Mayor Eric Johnson (@Johnson4Dallas) November 12, 2022

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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.

Pilot Victoria Yeager, widow of famed Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager, was also on the show. She didn’t see the crash, but she did see the burning wreckage.

“I was shattered,” said Yeager, 64, who lives in Forsworth.

“I hoped everyone got out, but I knew they didn’t,” she said of the passengers.

The B-17 is a massive four-engine bomber, the cornerstone of United States air power during World War II and one of the most famous fighter aircraft in American history. 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.

Several videos posted on social media 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.

“It was really terrifying to watch,” said Aubrey Ann Young, 37, of Leander. Texas saw the crash. Her children were inside the hangar with her father when the incident happened. “I’m still trying to figure it out.”

In a video Young uploaded to his Facebook page, a woman next to Young can be heard crying and screaming hysterically.

Air show safety has long been a concern, especially for older military aircraft. In 2011, his P-51 Mustang crashed into a crowd in Reno, Nevada, killing 11 people. In 2019, seven people were killed in a bomber crash in Hartford, Connecticut. The NTSB said it had investigated his 21 accidents since 1982 involving bombers during World War II that resulted in 23 fatalities.

Wings Over Dallas bills itself as “America’s World War II air show,” according to the website promoting the event. By appointment, guests were to see more than 40 World War II-era aircraft. Saturday afternoon’s schedule included flight demonstrations, including a “bomber parade” and a “fighter escort” featuring a B-17 and his P-63.

Videos from previous Wings Over Dallas events depict vintage fighters flying low and sometimes in close formation during simulated strafing or bombing runs. The video also shows the plane performing acrobatic stunts.

The FAA has also launched an investigation, officials said.

— Bleeding was reported from Little Rock, Arkansas.

Recent Fatal Crashes Involving Vintage Aircraft

The collision of two World War II-era military planes at Saturday’s Dallas Air Show was the latest in a long list of crashes involving older planes used or designed for military purposes. Recent fatal crashes in the US and abroad:

— October 2, 2019: A four-engine, propeller-powered B-17G Flying Fortress bomber with 13 people on board during a vintage aircraft traveling show at Bradley International Airport, north of Hartford, Connecticut has crashed. Seven people were killed and six injured. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that pilot error was likely the cause, with inadequate maintenance being a contributing factor.

— November 17, 2018: A privately owned vintage WWII Mustang fighter plane crashes in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Fredericksburg, Texas, killing the pilot and passengers. The P-51D Mustang is back after a flyover at the Living History Show at the National Museum of the Pacific War. The aircraft was wrecked and several cars in the parking lot were damaged.

— August 4, 2018: A 79-year-old Junkers Ju-52 plane operated by the Swiss company Ju-Air crashed on the Piz Cegnas mountain near the Flims ski resort in eastern Switzerland, killing all 20 people on board. has died. Decommissioned from the Swiss Air Force in 1981, this German-built plane carried tourists wishing to take an ‘adventure flight’ through the Swiss landscape on a plane of the time. Swiss investigators said a “high-risk flight” by the pilot led to the crash.

— May 30, 2018: A small vintage plane and five other planes that were part of a GEICO stunt team crashed into a wooded residential neighborhood in Melville, New York, killing the pilot. A World War II-era SNJ-2 aircraft, known as the T-6 Texan in North America, was departing from a nearby airport and en route to Maryland when it crashed.

— July 16, 2017: Pilot and airport manager killed in Cummings, Kansas after a WWII-era P-51D Mustang “Baby Duck” crashed into a field. Officials said the pilot had recreated a stunt Amelia had performed at his Earhart festival the day before.

— January 26, 2017: A World War II-era Grumman G-73 Mallard flying boat stalls and plummets into the Swan River in Perth, Australia during Australia Day celebrations. Both pilot and passenger died.

— August 27, 2016 — An Alaskan pilot was killed when his WWII-era 450 Stearman biplane, commonly used for military training, crashed at the Cascades Air Show in Madras, Oregon. .

— 17 July 2016 — The T-28 Trojan, used by the U.S. military since the 1950s as a trainer aircraft and during the Vietnam War as a counterinsurgency aircraft, crashed at the Cold Lake Air Show in Alberta. The pilot has died. Thousands of spectators witnessed the accident.

— 22 August 2015 — A 1950s Hawker Hunter T7 jet crashes into a busy motorway near West Sussex, England, killing 11 people and injuring more than a dozen. Investigators said the surviving pilot was flying too low and too slow to successfully complete Loop the Loop. essentially innocent.

— June 22, 2013 — During a performance at the Vectren Dayton Air Show in Vandalia, Ohio, a World War II-era Boeing-Stearman IB75A biplane hit the ground and burst into flames with a pilot and Wing Walker has died. Thousands of spectators watched the crash, which federal safety investigators said was likely due to pilot error.

— September 16, 2011 — During the National Championship Air Race and Air Show in Reno, Nevada, a pilot in a 70-year-old modified P-51D Mustang dubbed the Galloping Ghost lost control of his aircraft and was seen by spectators. crashed into and died. More than 10 people were injured and the pilot was killed. Federal investigators blamed worn parts and speed for the crash.