Two historic military planes collided and crashed Saturday during an air show in Dallas, exploding into a fireball and sending plumes of black smoke into the sky. It was not immediately clear how many people were on board or if anyone on the ground was injured.
Leah Block, a spokeswoman for the Air Force Memorial, which produced the Veterans Day weekend program and owned the crashed plane, told ABC News she believes there were five crew members. on a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber and one on a P-63 Kingcobra fighter jet. plane. She said Houston-based planes did not offer service to paying customers at the time.
Emergency crews rushed to the scene of the crash at Dallas Executive Airport, about 10 miles (16 km) from downtown. Television news footage live from the scene showed people erecting orange cones around the bomber’s crumpled wreckage, lying on a grassy patch.
Anthony Montoya saw two planes collide.
“I just stood there. I was completely shocked and couldn’t believe it,” said Montoya, 27, who attended the air show with a friend. “Everybody around gasped. Everyone burst into tears. Everyone was shocked.”
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said the National Transportation Safety Board was at the scene of the crash with the help of local police and firefighters.
“The videos are heartbreaking,” Johnson said on Twitter.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collided and crashed at about 13:20 p.m. local time. The crash happened during an Air Force Wings Memorial performance over Dallas.
Victoria Yeager, widow of famous Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager and herself a pilot, was also at the show. She did not see the impact, but did see the burning wreckage.
“It was pulverized,” said Yeager, 64, of Fort Worth.
“We just hoped they all got out, but we know they didn’t,” she said of those on board.
The B-17, a 4-engine bomber, was the cornerstone of U.S. air power during World War II and is one of the most famous fighters in American history. The Kingcobra, an American fighter aircraft, was used mostly by Soviet forces during the war. Most of the B-17s were scrapped at the end of World War II and only a few remain today, most of which are on display at museums and air shows, according to Boeing.
Several videos posted on social media showed the fighter jet seemingly hitting the bombers, causing them to quickly plunge to the ground and create a large ball of fire and smoke.
Aubrey Anne Young, 37, of Leander, said: “It was horrifying to witness that scene. Texas, who saw the crash. Her children were in the hangar with their father when it happened. “I’m still trying to understand it.”
A woman next to Young can be heard crying and screaming hysterically on a video Young uploaded to her Facebook page.
Airshow safety – especially with older military aircraft – has been a concern for many years. In 2011, 11 people were killed in Reno, Nevada when a P-51 Mustang crashed into an audience. In 2019, a bomber crashed in Hartford, Connecticut, killing seven people. The NTSB later said it had investigated 21 crashes since 1982 involving World War II-era bombers, which killed 23 people.
According to a website promoting the event, Wings Over Dallas describes itself as “America’s World War II Airshow”. The show is scheduled for November 11-13, the weekend of Veterans Day, and guests get to see more than 40 World War II-era aircraft. Its Saturday afternoon schedule includes flying demonstrations including a “bomber parade” and “fighter escorts” featuring B-17s and P-63s.
Videos of previous Wings Over Dallas events depict classic fighters flying low, sometimes in close formation, on simulated or bombing routes. The videos also show the planes performing aerobatics.
The FAA is also opening an investigation, officials said.
