Two aircraft – a Boeing B-17 bomber and a smaller plane – collided mid-air at an air show at Texas’s Dallas Executive Airport on Saturday, immediately falling to the ground and bursting into flames. Six people, all crew members, were killed in the collision, authorities said.
“According to our Dallas County Medical Examiner, there are a total of 6 fatalities from yesterday’s Wings over Dallas air show incident,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Sunday on Twitter.
Dramatic visuals captured by people attending the airshow show the bigger B-17 bomber flying, not very high from the ground, in a straight line, while the smaller plane – a Bell P-63 Kingcobra, hurtling in its direction from the left. The smaller plane crashes on top of the B-17, a World War II-era plane, and immediately the two aircraft break apart into pieces, visuals show.
Within a couple of seconds, the planes are on the ground, covered in a ball of fire.
— Giancarlo (@GianKaizen) November 12, 2022
OMG – two planes collided at ‘Wings Over Dallas’ air show today
This is crazy
— James T. Yoder (@JamesYoder) November 12, 2022
The collision occurred during the Wings Over Dallas Airshow at Dallas Executive Airport. The tragedy, under investigation by federal agencies, involved a single-pilot Bell P-63 Kingcobra crashing into a larger Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
The B-17, a four-engined bomber, played a major role in winning the air war against Germany in World War II. With a workhorse reputation, it became one of the most produced bombers ever. The P-63 Kingcobra was a fighter aircraft developed during the same war by Bell Aircraft but used in combat only by the Soviet Air Force.
One of the last major crashes of a B-17 was on October 2, 2019, when seven people died in an accident at an airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut.
