Two historic planes collide at Veterans Day Air Show in Dallas

Dallas – Two historic military planes collided and crashed Saturday during an air show in Dallas, exploding into a ball of flame and billowing black smoke into the sky. It’s unclear how many people were on board.

Paramedics rushed to the crash site at Dallas Executive Airport, about 10 miles (16 km) from downtown Dallas. News footage from the scene showed the crumpled wreckage of the plane on the lawn area around the airport. The Dallas Fire and Rescue Service told the Dallas Morning News that no injuries were reported on the ground.

Anthony Montoya saw two planes collide.

“I was just standing there. I was completely shocked and in disbelief,” said Montoya, 27, who attended the airshow with friends. “Everyone around me was gasping. Everyone was in tears. Everyone was in shock.”

Authorities did not say how many people were on board the plane, but Hank Coates, president of the company that organized the air show, said one of the planes, a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, normally carries four people. said it has a crew of five. He’s got one he’s a P-63 King Cobra fighter and he’s one pilot.

Coates of the Memorial Air Force, which owned the plane, said the plane had no paying customers. Their aircraft are flown by highly trained volunteers, many of whom are retired pilots, he said.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigative team will arrive at the crash site on Sunday.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said the NTSB had taken control of the crash site and local police and fire departments provided assistance.

“The video is heartbreaking,” Johnson wrote on Twitter.

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the plane crashed at around 1:20 p.m. The collision occurred during the Memorial Air Force Wings Show over Dallas.

Pilot Victoria Yeager, widow of famed Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager, was also on the show. She didn’t see the crash, but she did see the burning wreckage.

“It was shattered,” said Yeager, 64, of Fort Worth.

“I hoped everyone got out, but I knew they didn’t,” she said of the passengers.

The B-17 was a cornerstone of U.S. air power during World War II and was a massive four-engine bomber used in daytime raids against Germany. A US fighter, the King Cobra was used primarily by the Soviet military during the war. According to Boeing, most B-17s were scrapped at the end of World War II, with only a handful remaining today, mostly displayed in museums and air shows.

Several videos posted on social media appeared to show a fighter plane dove into the bomber, which immediately crashed to the ground and launched a large ball of fire and smoke.

“It was really terrifying to see,” said Aubrey Ann Young, 37, of Leander, Texas, who saw the crash, and her children were in a hangar with their father when the accident happened. “I’m still trying to figure it out.”

In a video Young uploaded to his Facebook page, a woman next to Young can be heard crying and screaming hysterically.

Air Show Safety – Especially For Older Military Aircraft – I’ve been wondering for yearsIn 2011, 11 people were killed when a P-51 Mustang crashed into a crowd in Reno, Nevada. In 2019, seven people were killed in a bomber crash in Hartford, Connecticut. The NTSB said at the time it was investigating. 21 accidents Since 1982, there have been 23 deaths involving World War II-era bombers.

Wings Over Dallas bills itself as “America’s World War II air show,” according to the website promoting the event. By appointment, guests were to see more than 40 World War II-era aircraft. Saturday afternoon’s schedule of flight demonstrations included a “bomber parade” and a “fighter escort” featuring a B-17 and his P-63.

Videos from previous Wings Over Dallas events depict vintage fighters flying low and sometimes in close formation during simulated strafing or bombing runs. The video also shows the plane performing acrobatic stunts.

The FAA has also launched an investigation, officials said.

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Breed was reported from Little Rock, Arkansas. Bobby Kayna Calvin of New York City, Ken Miller of Oklahoma City, and Dave Kolpak of Fargo, North Dakota contributed to this report.