Two vintage warplanes collided in midair Saturday afternoon during the Commemorative Air Force Wings Over Dallas show at Dallas Executive Airport.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra crashed about 1:20 p.m. Dozens of Dallas Fire-Rescue vehicles responded to the airport in the 5300 block of Challenger Drive, near U.S. Highway 67 in Red Bird.
The Commemorative Air Force said both planes were based out of Houston.
It was unclear how many people were aboard the aircraft, but Hank Coates, CEO of Commemorative Air Force, said a B-17 usually has a crew of four to five people, while a P-63 is a single-pilot aircraft. According to Dallas Fire-Rescue, the number of causalities was unknown as of 4:15 p.m., but the department confirmed that no injuries were reported among people on the ground.
There’s video up on Twitter, from a variety of angles. They didn’t have a chance.
Condolences to their friends and family.
OMG…
My sincere Condolences to all…
Damn, I think I was actually on that plane when it went on tour along with their Heinkel 111 that was used in The Battle of Britain movie.
Sincere condolences to the flight crew & their families.
A few years ago, the B-17 visited our airport. I spent $450.USD for a 15 minute flight in the forward gunners seat. A flight to remember for ever. NEVER regretted the cost.
Today’s story brought more than one tear to my eye.
Wow! That was just like what happened to “Mother and Country” in Memphis Belle, except that they wouldn’t have even had time to react. Sad.
Took the whole back of the B17 fuselage off rear of the wings.
Damn, too low to react or bail.
Condolences to those involved.
But I’ve gotta ask, was the P-63 pilot fully vexxed and did he have an inflight seizure ?
Too early to know.
He was coming in fast and not at the same angle as the rest of the planes from that one view – super sad all way around for sure.
My thought too. It looked like the pilot lost control.
You know… I’m not a pilot so I’m not going to claim to be an expert, but I know that some SDA’ers out there know a thing or two about flight, so please explain to me how can the pilot of the P-63 not see the B-17? Someone said that the B-17 was in the P-63 pilot’s blind spot. Even banking, how is that even possible with such a huge plane directly in front of the P-63?
Either the pilot panicked, suffered a medical incident, or I’m going to say it, from my vantage point, it looked terrifyingly like a suicide run, but please, oh please tell me that I am way off base. I really do not want to believe my lying eyes in this case.
I’m horrified at what I have seen, and no, I can’t imagine the pain endured by the families of these pilots and crew who lost their lives. I don’t see how anyone in either of the aircraft could have survived, especially the fireball when the B-17 hit the ground. My sympathies to all those grieving tonight.
My condolences to everyone that lost loved ones in that crash.
There is enough camera footage from different angles that the NTSB will be able to recreate exactly what the P-39 pilot would have seen prior to the mid-air. With all the zoom lenses on high quality cameras at airshows, there might even be pictures that show where the pilot was looking prior to impact.
The nose of the P-39 could have blocked the B-17 from view at some point during the turn but unlikely it was completely blocked prior to collision, though that’s a possibility. A plausible explanation is that it appears the B-17 was more or less wings level and aligned with the runway for its pass in front of the spectators. The P-39 was still steeply banked and looking like it was going to fly through the centreline by a significant amount. The pilot may have been so focussed on lining up with the runway centreline and not overflying the crowd of spectators on the outside of the turn that the closure rate on the B-17, or the B-17 altogether, went unnoticed.
Looks like the smaller warbirds were supposed to be on an inside track going a lot faster. Pilot of the P63 realized he was going to overshoot the centerline and pulled hard into a bank to correct his course, which put his belly to the B17. Was probably watching/following the other smaller/faster warbirds and trying to follow their course.
I can’t fathom how this display was planned to allow a mix like this. It was a disaster waiting to happen.
Canadian airshows are a lot more conservative, perhaps excessively so. Last one I was at, nobody was allowed to exceed the controlled airspace speed limit of 200 knots even though the airspace was closed for the show. Just once I would like to see warbirds going full speed to give the impression of just how fast things happened in WWII fighter planes, but not a mix of slow and fast moving aircraft!
Video and commentary on another site noted that the P-63 had a lead plane, and was trying to make a crossing pattern from the port side of the B-17, from above and behind the bomber.
In this attitude, the B-17 would be “under” the wings of the P-63, and that pilot would not be able to see the bomber. It looked like the P-63 was early in the pattern, when it should have crossed behind the B-17.
These shows are extensively planned, and the pilots highly skilled, but this is still putting large, high energy objects in close proximity to each other at high speeds. There is little margin for error, and terrible consequences.
My thoughts exactly, John. From the video it appears that the Cobra broke formation and was heading into the ground and the B-17 was in the path. I am saddened for the loss of the crew and the aircraft inviolved. Hopefully the B-17 was not Sentimental Journey.
Seriously? The p63 was making a left climbing turn, and as big as a B17 is, I sincerely doubt the pilot even saw the B17. The P63’s wing was probably blocking his sight picture. Think right hand a-pillar on a car only a crap ton bigger.
Awful tragedy!
Those aircraft were at least 77 years old. We must be running low on serviceable WWII planes. The P63 was rare in US service. The Godless Communists were the primary users.
RIP…
Climate Change…
That looked like a recipe for disaster – numerous planes circling at varying speeds.
Even teams of 7 and 9 planes like the Snowbirds and Il Tri Colore have had accidents and they practice together constantly. This looked like a bunch of un-associated planes all in a tight airspace.
That was A LOT of planes moving fast in very close quarters! Did the B 17 wander onto an active race course? Looks like an air traffic control FAIL
Air traffic control would have only been providing advisory services to show participants, things like wind speed and direction, show pilots are responsible for separation.
The P-63 coming in hot and belly up to the B-17. Formula for not knowing who was under the belly. Not the first time and not the last. People who were proud of the history of their aircraft and eager to present that history to the public.
RIP All.
Indeed. The time and work spent on these planes is a labor of love.
https://www.boeing.com/history/products/b-17-flying-fortress.page
That is such a tragedy — the loss of life and two iconic pieces of history.
The video at the Twitter link where the kid asks “was that supposed to happen?” is absolutely heartbreaking.
That’s very sad, on many levels. The restoration and maintenance on those planes is a true labor of love that honors the memories of those who flew and died in them. It was a bunch of very skilled and dedicated people who lost their lives. It appears that this was a case of simple human error, with the pilot of the P-63 losing track of where the B-17 was, but a mechanical situation can’t be ruled out. My gut says a combination of both, actually.
Yeah the mechanical situation was that P39 (ok call it a 63) running smack dab into the B-17.
I am a total aviation guy and this is very upsetting. I haven’t studied the videos in detail, so I don’t have an opinion as to who was at fault. Suffice to say that any pilot participating in an airshow has to prove a very high level of competence, but pilots, like all of us, make mistakes.
Just this past week I flew down to the museum in Windsor where they are building a new Mosquito from scratch using the original design drawings. It is a very inspiring sight. They are also fully restoring a Lancaster that was perched on a concrete pedestal for years in Windsor. It will be flight capable, but right now the City, who owns the plane, doesn’t want it to fly.
https://canadianaviationmuseum.ca/
Recommended.
It’s inspiring to see the Lanc at the Nanton, AB, Bomber Command museum when they roll it out on the tarmac on summer Sundays. Even better when they fire up those 4 Rolls-Royce Merlin engines.
If there is any consolation for those who died in Dallas, it’s that they passed while doing what they loved. What better way?
“No old bold…”
Isn’t debatable.
RIP
Back in the 1990s when we lived in Atlanta the Commemorative Air Force was based there and called the Confederate Air Force. At one event there we got inside a B-17 and what a treat that was.
Sincere condolences to the loved one of all involved.
Back in the day, Dad ended up as an instructor in the RCAF (not his choice; did too well in basic training). He passed out second in his class; the man who passed out first chose to ferry planes from Winnipeg to Toronto (he ended up dying when a plane he was flying went down over Lake Superior), so Dad got the instructor post and ended up training at RCAF Station Macdonald (just NW of Portage la Prairie). He taught navigation and I had always assumed that this was a ground-based and relatively safe post, though Mum had mentioned over the years that they lost a fair few instructor friends when the students made serious errors. However, on a visit to the Commonwealth Air Museum in Brandon, Manitoba, youngest offspring and I discovered that navigator instructors also went skyward in specially equipped planes so the students could study the skies as they would be seen in combat. The museum has an old instructor plane there, so offspring could sit in the seat that – perhaps – Grandad had sat while instructing.