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Dallas air show tragedy

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Looks like the 17 was on a straight and level flight and it appears to me from the angle of the shot, the Bell flew into the 17 from slightly behind on the left. NTSB will surly find who was at fault, which appears to be obvious. The sad part most of all are the loss of life, and less important is that two irreplaceable historical aircraft are lost to the scrap heap. No further comment. PJ
 
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PAUL161 said:
Looks like the 17 was on a straight and level flight and it appears to me from the angle of the shot, the Bell flew into the 17 from slightly behind on the left. NTSB will surly find who was at fault, which appears to be obvious. The sad part most of all are the loss of life, and less important is that two irreplaceable historical aircraft are lost to the scrap heap. No further comment. PJ
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I agree Paul. Looks like the Bell flew straight into the tail of the B17. Tragic.
 
Yea, saw the film on the news, terrible thing. Certainly looks like the P-63 pilot lost awareness of where the other aircraft was. I kinda hope that it is found to be some sort of medical emergency and not an error on either pilot's part.
 
Someone got a picture of the moment the two aircraft hit.

b17.jpeg
 
That’s an astonishing photograph…

It will be at least a year before the official report comes out but it seems as though a serious communication breakdown or planning failure occurred resulting in this terrible loss of life and artifact.

A very sad event…
 
What a tragedy.

Bas, that photo is incredible.
 
In the latest report, 6 people died, and no names have been published as of yet.
 
Until NTSB completes their investigation we won't know what caused this terrible tragedy.
 
That picture showed up on one of the news sites I check at lunch here at work - horrific is an understatement. In a way I'm thankful they didn't have video posted, not sure I could handle watching something like that...
 
I hear you there! I did see several videos showing the actual crash. Entire fuselage back of the wings was broken off. Horrible.

Some notes on the two aircraft, from a fellow aviation enthusiast:

That Kingcobra P-63 " ... was the last F model in existence ( only two were built, in 1944) . It survived the Post-War scrapping by having been bailed / assigned to NACA until the Mid-50's . After it was acquired by the CAF (Commemorative/Confederate Air Force) in the 90's , it was restored to its NACA marking scheme .

"The Boeing B-17G Fortress , s/n 44-83872 was built at Douglas Long Beach and was accepted by the USAAF in late 1944. After the War, she was transferred to the USN in 1945 for conversion to PB-1W configuration (as an airborne Early Warning bird) , as BuNo 77325. She served the Navy for 11 years, until stricken from the USN Inventory in 1956. In 1957, She was sold to an aerial survey company and served there until sold to the then-Confederate Air Force on Sep 22, 1967 , as N7227C. Originally flying in her civilian colors , she received her first coat of camouflage in 1970, and was marked as B-17F 41-24592 , "Texas Raiders" in 1970 , becoming one of the first "Warbirds" in WWII period markings on the display circuit . She flew with the CAF ( later Commemorative Air Force) for over 52 years and was one of the best-known B-17s on the Warbird display circuit. .

"The mid-air collision on the 12th was a lousy way for two aircraft and 6 people to die. "

Bell P-63F - last one - crashed 12 Nov 2022 - collision with B-17G Texas Raiders.jpg


Douglas_B-17G-95-DL_Flying_Fortress.jpg
 
Thanks for all the background info Tom. Very interesting.
 
I got a ride in a 17 back in 2008 (the Liberty Belle which has since been lost to an in-flight fire)..impressive machine. They are tough old birds, but sadly not indestructible. 6 people lost on a calm clear day with seemingly unlimited visibility. I hope that because it was a public show and regrettably people on the ground had to witness this there will be enough evidence and information for the NTSB to do their work and steps will be taken to never repeat a tragedy like this (preferrably without a ruling that grounds all vintage aircraft).
 
Tragic on many levels.
 
The P63 ran right into the B17. Either intentional? or no situational awareness. My guess they will never find the true cause of the collision. That's two more B17s destroyed. The other one crashed at Bradley.
 
I can’t find the video on youtube but I have seen one of a mustang taxiing into the tail of a Bell 206 parked at an airport. The nose on some of those WW2 era fighter is very long (and the King Cobra is no exception) resulting in what must be a huge blind spot. I can’t imagine that this was anything but a loss of situational awareness and we will find out eventually why this happened. If this took place at a towered airport there will be recordings of the radio traffic and I’m sure the investigators will be interviewing all of the controllers, organizers, and pilots about their procedures and planning.
 
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