Posted on 11/12/2022 12:58:22 PM PST by DFG
DALLAS — A mid-air collision has happened at the Wings Over Dallas air show at the Dallas Executive Airport, Dallas Fire-Rescue (DFR) has confirmed to WFAA.
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The FAA released the following statement to WFAA:
A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collided and crashed at the Wings Over Dallas Airshow at Dallas Executive Airport in Texas around 1:20 p.m. local time Saturday. At this time, it is unknown how many people were on both aircraft.The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and will provide additional updates.After investigators verify the aircraft registration numbers at the scene, the FAA will release them (usually on the next business day) on this webpage. You can look up the aircraft by their registration numbers on this webpage. Neither agency identifies people involved in aircraft accidents.
(Excerpt) Read more at wfaa.com ...
Video
https://rumble.com/v1txcyk-b-17-bomber-and-a-smaller-plane-collide-at-dallas-airshow.html
Another angle
Fiery footage of two planes colliding in mid-air during the Wings Over Dallas WWII Airshow.
https://rumble.com/v1txed4-fiery-footage-of-two-planes-colliding-in-mid-air-during-the-wings-over-dall.html
Sad about the casualties and sad about a B-17 being destroyed.
That makes no sense. How does that happen?
intentional
And the smaller plane, a Bell P-63, is even rarer than a B-17.
Dam to the loss of flight crews and the planes themselves.
There are not many B-17s left today. Nor Air Cobras. Very sad.
I’ll hold to make sure mechanical/health failure combined with pure bad luck. If not....absolutely suicide
The way the P-63 dove into the back of the B-17 it almost looks like it. Very odd incident.
“intentional.”
The P-39 was clearly at fault. And, yes; it did look like an intentional ramming, though it was more likely pilot inattention.
March 9, 2019 story about this P-63 in warbirdnews https://warbirdsnews.com/warbird-restorations/caf-bell-p-63f-kingcobra-re-emerges-in-fresh-livery.html
Correction: P-63 KingCobra, not P-39 AirCobra.
He just wasn’t looking where he was going. Distracted by instruments, controls, ground activity, etc.
Smaller aircraft closed on the B-17, the P-60 limited visibility below the wing meant the pilot never saw the B-17. Collided. B-17 did not see the P-60 approaching from below.
Sad incident.
Just my perspective.
COULD NOT have won wWII without those planes...
IIRC, we were making ONE PER DAY at the height of production.
Shouldn’t airshow performances be carefully orchestrated in advance to obviate obscured pilot visibility situations? Assigned altitudes, closing vectors, strict rules for the merge. I have seen many “Heritage” performances with dissimilar aircraft types yet no risk of collisions due to protocol adherence. This appeared to be totally uncontrolled, ad libbed, or just unprofessional and sloppy on the fighter pilot’s part. ...Unless there was a medical emergency or control failure.
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