Air Show Crash at CAF Dallas Air Show

[Bob Womack]

There has been a tragic crash at the Commemorative Air Force Dallas Air Show. From videos it appears that a P-63 Kingcobra cut inside the show pattern and slammed into the CAF B-17, "Texas Raiders." Both were WWII era aircraft. The B-17 was making a low pass over the field at approximately 150 feet. The P-63 appears to have cut across from about eight o'clock high (port side, abaft the wing, going from high to low. The entire tail empennage of the B-17 separated, from the radio room (trailing edge of the wing) back. Both aircraft dropped to the ground immediately and the wings and forward fuselage of the B-17 burst into flame. There are no reports of survivors. The B-17 typically flew with a crew of four to five and the P-63 was a single-man fighter aircraft.

For those who remember, Milsurps moderator Harlan (deceased) was a member of the Commemorative Air Force. He flew with and photographed B-17 Texas Raiders. He was also the impetus for the creation of this sub-forum, by the way.

Let's keep the families of those involved in prayer, shall we?

Bob

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[Flying10uk]

Very sad news. A reminder to the fact that when a WW2 era bomber is lost it can, sadly, sometimes, mean a large loss of life.

[Low & Slow]

Tragic event. Hits hard to see this.

[Gil Boyd]

Thoughts are with families and friends on this Remembrance Day
RIP

[Aragorn243]

November 12th at an air show in Texas, a B-17 had it's tail sliced off by a P-63 King Cobra which nearly disintegrated afterwards. The B-17 flying only a few hundred feet up at the time immediately flipped and slammed into the ground. Five on the B-17 and the pilot of the P-63 are presumed dead. There are multiple videos of it happening and I would expect more will become available as time passes. These things are taped by hundreds of spectators on the ground.

Official word is minimal as they are waiting on the investigation to be concluded.

Criticism has already begun as it does every time one of these old warbirds is involved in a crash, but this was not equipment failure.

Both planes are total losses.

From the video, it almost looks deliberate but I won't speculate on that. The B-17 looked to be approaching for a photo pass and the fighter approached from the left and behind at a high rate of speed. At the shows I attend, the fighters and bombers are never "performing" at the same time so this was unusual. They are often in the air at the same time but never over the spectator area and not doing stunts when anything else is around.

[Bob Womack]

Threads merged to make discussion easier.

Bob

[Surpmil]

Very sad indeed and I would guess the pilot of the fighter either intended to make a close pass as though simulating an attack, or simply couldn't see the B17 past the nose of his own a/c.

Deliberate hadn't occurred to me, but similar things have happened. If there was some personal issues involved, perhaps that would explain what might have been intended only as a very close pass that was misjudged?

[jond41403]

On the articles I have read about it, alot of people seem to be commenting on the low visibility of the KingCobra aircrafts cockpit so it is entirely possible he did not see the B-17. Completely tragic all the way around

[GeeRam]

On the articles I have read about it, alot of people seem to be commenting on the low visibility of the KingCobra aircrafts cockpit so it is entirely possible he did not see the B-17.

Which is complete red herring, given the P-63 was clearly banking inside the turn, so the B-17 was hidden below the cockpit floor in effect, so the blindspot the B-17 was in was nothing to do with the view out of the cockpit!

I've seen a comment from someone involved that the display airboss cleared the fighters into the lower bomber circuit, as had been the pre-show brief if it was clear to do so, which if true, means the airboss either didn't see/expect the B-17 to be there, or more likely cleared the P-51 through and hadn't seen the smaller front profile of the P-63 following it into the lower circuit as well.....

[Sarge1998]

Which is complete red herring, given the P-63 was clearly banking inside the turn, so the B-17 was hidden below the cockpit floor in effect, so the blindspot the B-17 was in was nothing to do with the view out of the cockpit!

I've seen a comment from someone involved that the display airboss cleared the fighters into the lower bomber circuit, as had been the pre-show brief if it was clear to do so, which if true, means the airboss either didn't see/expect the B-17 to be there, or more likely cleared the P-51 through and hadn't seen the smaller front profile of the P-63 following it into the lower circuit as well.....

IMO this is the person most responsible for the tragedy, not thought out of what can go wrong will go wrong. All three pilots were highly qualified, I'm surprised someone didn't speak up during the pre-flight or while being cleared to enter the altitude at which the planes converged. That airboss/controller should never be allowed to hold that duty again, if it's within your control you are responsible. ALL future air shows should have strict regulations related to multiple aircraft and aircraft types flying in the same relative airspace. These are civilian professionals participating in a weekend hobby. Husband of my wife's HS BFF had VIP tickets to Friday's show but it was rained out, he was rescheduled for Sunday but the event was cancelled after this tragedy. My initial knee jerk reaction was to blame the Aircobra pilot, but I've shifted that to place the responsibility on the event air traffic controller.