Two historical military planes, a Boeing B-17 bomber, and a smaller plane – collided mid-air at an air show at Texas’s Dallas Executive Airport on Saturday, immediately falling to the ground and bursting into flames, federal officials said.
The impact sent plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky, even as officials did not immediately make clear how many people were on board the aircraft or if anyone on the ground was hurt.
However, it was gathered reliably that six people lost their lives in the collision, even as an ABC News producer, citing reports from a colleague, hinted on Twitter that at least six people, all crew members, were feared dead after the crash.
“According to our Dallas County Medical Examiner, there are a total of six (6) fatalities from yesterday’s Wings over Dallas air show incident,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Sunday on Twitter.
Anthony Montoya, who saw the two planes collide, said; “I just stood there. I was in complete shock and disbelief”. Montoya, 27, who attended the airshow with a friend, further said; “Everybody around was gasping. Everybody was bursting into tears. Everybody was in shock.”
Emergency crews raced to the crash scene at the Dallas Executive airport, about 10 miles from the city’s downtown and live news footage from the scene showed people setting up orange cones around the crumpled wreckage of a bomber, which was in a grassy area.
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collided and crashed at about 1.20 pm, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement. The collision occurred during the Commemorative Air Force Wings Over Dallas show.
The B-17, an immense four-engine bomber, was a cornerstone of US air power during the second world war. The Kingcobra, a US fighter plane, was used mostly by Soviet forces during the war. Most B-17s were scrapped at the end of the second world war and only a handful remain today, largely featured at museums and airshows, according to Boeing.
Several videos posted on Twitter showed the fighter plane appearing to fly into the bomber, causing them to quickly crash to the ground and setting off a large ball of fire and smoke. Dramatic visuals captured by people attending the airshow show the bigger B-17 bomber flying, not very high from the ground, in a straight line, while the smaller plane – a Bell P-63 Kingcobra, hurtling in its direction from the left. The smaller plane crashes on top of the B-17, a World War II-era plane, and immediately the two aircraft break apart into pieces, visuals show.
Wings Over Dallas bills itself as “America’s premier world war II airshow”, according to a website advertising the event. The show was scheduled for 11-13 November, Veterans Day weekend, and guests were to see more than 40-second world war-era aircraft.
Hank Coates, President of the Commemorative Air Force, later told reporters that the families of crew members involved in the disaster, as well as witnesses, would be offered support, including emotional counseling.
He declined to say exactly how many people were feared dead by officials, but he said the B-17 typically carried four to five crewmembers while the P-63 had a seat only for the pilot.
“Please … if you have it in your mind, express prayers and thoughts for the crews that were involved today, for the people that saw it, for the family members,” Coates said. “Obviously, this is a very challenging time for those families.”
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) were launching investigations. Preliminary reports may come out in the coming several days, but final findings may not be issued for more than a year.
One of the last major crashes of a B-17 was on October 2, 2019, when seven people died in an accident at an airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. – With AP reports
