A WWII-era B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra crashed mid-air at a Dallas airshow on Saturday, before both aircraft exploded into flames.
Videos posted on social media showed the smaller P-63 fighter fly at speed directly into the larger B-17 before the aircraft crashed into the ground in front of onlookers.
OMG – two planes collided at ‘Wings Over Dallas’ air show today
This is crazy
— James T. Yoder (@JamesYoder) November 12, 2022
The city’s major, Eric Johnson, called the incident “heartbreaking’ but said no spectators on the ground were thought to be injured.
“Please, say a prayer for the souls who took to the sky to entertain and educate our families today,” he said on Twitter.
It’s still unknown how many were onboard the two warbirds but the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the collision.
The incident took place at the Wings Over Dallas air show at Dallas Executive Airport, around 10 miles south of downtown Dallas.
Another angle shows just how many planes were flying everywhere when the crash happened pic.twitter.com/bvS7DwBCSZ
— James T. Yoder (@JamesYoder) November 12, 2022
The huge B-17 was the first Boeing military aircraft with a flight deck instead of an open cockpit and first saw combat in 1941, with the British RAF.
Boeing built nearly 7,000 in various models, while a further 5,700 were built by Douglas and Lockheed. Most were scrapped after the war and only a few models surive today.
The smaller P-63 Kingcobra was developed by Bell during World War II, and was primarily flown by the Soviet air forces.
The tragedy comes days after Australia saw its first mid-air collision in two years.
On Wednesday, a recreation aircraft and glider crashed into each other near the Sunshine Coast, killing the sole pilots, an 80-year-old, Christopher Turner and a 77-year-old as yet unidentified Glenwood man.
Australian Aviation reported earlier this week how one witness told 7News he was sitting on his veranda when he heard a “big bang”.
“We thought that didn’t sound like a gunshot, and we looked up and saw white bits of plane falling out of the sky.”
Before the crash, the glider and its tug aircraft took off from Gympie Aerodrome at Kybong, the home of Sunshine Coast Gliding Club.
It has been confirmed the second aircraft involved in the incident was not the tow plane.
The ATSB then subsequently said it was unable to investigate the incident because it has to prioritise its resources towards larger aircraft.
The organisation told The Australian it understood the next of kin “wanted answers” but had to allocate its resources towards cases that would generate the “greatest public safety benefit”.
