At the Dallas Air Show, a historic military aircraft crashes while in the air
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collided and crashed at the Wings Over Dallas airshow around 1:20 on Saturday. According to Jason Evans with Dallas Fire-Rescue, officers responded to the incident at Dallas Executive Airport on Saturday.
The number of fatalities from the collision had not yet been verified as of late Saturday afternoon, according to Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. Two retired pilots who were previous union members were among those killed in the incident, according to the Allied Pilots Association, the labor union for American Airlines pilots.
According to sources in a tweet, the B-17 Flying Fortress crew during the Wings Over Dallas airshow included former crew members Terry Barker and Len Root. Following the event, the APA is also offering professional counseling services at their Fort Worth offices.
Their tweet read, “Our hearts go out to their families, friends, and colleagues past and present.”
According to the agency’s active incidents website, there were more than 40 fire rescue units after the crash.
Hank Coates, president and chief executive officer of Memorial Air Force Base, stated at a press conference on Saturday that the B-17 “usually has a crew of four to five.” The P-63, a “single-pilot fighter type aircraft,” is the same aircraft.
I can tell you that the employees are typically to blame, Coates said. “Until the NTSB releases it, I can’t reveal the number of persons on the manifest or the names on the manifest.” Both aircraft were discovered outside of Houston at the Air Force Memorial.
According to a statement from the organization, which is collaborating with regional authorities and the FAA, “we do not have information on the status of the flight crew at this time because emergency responders are working on the accident.”
The NTSB will take over the probe after 9 p.m. The FAA is now in charge of it. Coates claimed that when an NTSB team got on the scene. The NTSB announced on Saturday night that a go-team was being formed to look into the collision. The NTSB tweeted that Sunday is when the team is anticipated to arrive.
The post further stated that “Member Michael Graham will serve as a representative on the scene.”
Coates observed that “the maneuvers they [the aircraft] were doing were not dynamic.” We refer to this as “Bombers on Parade.”
Johnson tweeted later on Saturday that no spectators or other people on the field had been reported hurt, but the Dallas Executive Airport grounds, Highway 67, and a neighboring strip mall were among the objects in the collision’s area of debris.
The event has been canceled, according to the organizer’s website, and it was supposed to last until Sunday.
“As many of you have seen by this point, we had a tragic tragedy today during an airshow in our city,” Johnson wrote in a tweet in response to the accident. Many specifics are now unconfirmed or unknown.
“The videos are painful to see. In a different tweet, Johnson pleaded for prayer for the souls who had ascended to heaven in order to amuse and instruct our families today. The highway’s southbound and northbound lanes were shut down following the incident, according to the Dallas Police Department.
“The plane is not at issue. At a press conference, Coates stated that it just isn’t. “I can assure you that the aircraft is excellent and secure. They receive excellent upkeep. Pilots receive excellent training. As a result, I find it difficult to discuss this because I know each and every one of them; they are all members of my family and close friends.
Coates claims that the pilots who participate in CAF airshows are volunteers who go through a rigorous training program. According to Coates, many of them are current or former commercial or military pilots.
The B-17 is one of several commemorative Air Force Ones that are hanged in Conroe, Texas, a suburb of Houston, and are known as the “Texas Raiders.” There are 45 complete instances of the model, but only nine are flight-ready.
The P-63 is incredibly uncommon. There are currently 14 specimens left, four of which are airworthy in the US, one of which is a part of the Memorial Air Force.
Between 1936 and 1945, Boeing, Douglas Aircraft, and Lockheed produced more than 12,000 B-17s; roughly 5,000 of those were destroyed in combat, and the majority were scrapped in the early 1960s. Between 1943 and 1945, Bell Aircraft produced over 3,300 P-63s, which saw heavy action in World War II by the Soviet Air Force.
