The Flight of a Plane. Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra in the Los Alamos Airshow on Saturday
A plane. Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra crashed at the Wings Over Dallas airshow on Saturday.
The B17 has a crew of four to five, according to Hank Coates, the CEO of the Commemorative Air Force. That was what was on the aircraft,” while the P-63 is a “single-piloted fighter type aircraft.”
“I can tell you that it was normally crewed,” Coates said. Until I am released, I cannot release the number of people in the manifest or the names on the manifest.
The group does not have any information on the status of the flight crews, as emergency responders are at the scene of the accident.
The FAA is currently leading the investigation, which is set to be turned over to the NTSB at approximately 9 p.m. when the NTSB team arrives at the scene, Coates said.
Johnson tweeted later on Saturday no spectators or others on the ground were reported injured, although the debris field from the collision includes the Dallas Executive Airport grounds, Highway 67, and a nearby strip mall.
Johnson said after the crash that there had been a terrible tragedy in the city. There are a lot of unknown or unconfirmed details at this time.
The videos are very sad. Johnson asked for prayers for the souls who took to the sky to entertain and educate our families.
“This is not about the aircraft. It’s just not,” Coates said during the news conference. The aircraft are very safe, that’s what I can tell you. They are well-maintained. The pilots are well-trained. I know many of the people, they are my family, and they are good friends.
According to Coates, the individuals flying the aircraft in CAF airshows are volunteers and have a strict process of training. Some are retired military pilots and others are airline pilots.
The Dallas Texas Raiders and the B-17/P-63 Airworthy Model: A 21-Year-Old Bomber Collision
The B-17 was part of a collection called the “Texas Raiders,” and had been in a hangar near Houston. Only nine of the 45 complete surviving examples of the model are airworthy.
Even rarer was the P-63. Some 14 examples are known to survive, four of which in the United States were airworthy, including one owned by the Commemorative Air Force.
Older military aircraft have a concern for air show safety. In 2011, 11 people were killed in Reno, Nevada, when a P-51 Mustang crashed into spectators. In 2019, a bomber crashed in Hartford, Connecticut, killing seven people. The NTSB said then that it had investigated 21 accidents since 1982 involving World War II-era bombers, resulting in 23 deaths.
Emergency crews raced to the crash scene at the Dallas Executive Airport, about 10 miles from the city’s downtown. In live TV news footage, orange cones are being set up around the crumpled wreck of the bombers bomber in a grassy area.
The Dallas Wings Over Dallas Event: A Relic from the B17 Flare and Its Destructions and the Unusual Impact of War
I stood there. I was in complete shock and disbelief,” said Montoya, 27, who attended the air show with a friend. “Everybody around was gasping. Everybody was bursting into tears. Everybody was in shock.”
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said the National Transportation Safety Board had taken control of the crash scene with local police and fire providing support.
The widow of the famed Air Force test pilot was at the show. She saw the fiery crash, but didn’t see the destruction in person.
The B17 is one of the most well known warplanes in U.S. history, and was a cornerstone of U.S. air power during World War II. The Soviets used mostly the U.S. Kingcobra during the war. Most B-17s were scrapped at the end of World War II and only a handful remain today, largely featured at museums and air shows, according to Boeing.
“It was really horrific to see,” Aubrey Anne Young, 37, of Leander, Texas, who saw the crash. When it occurred she and her children were inside the hangar. I’m still trying to understand it.
Videos of previous Wings Over Dallas events depict vintage warplanes flying low, sometimes in close formation, on simulated strafing or bombing runs. The videos show the planes performing stunts.