Another airshow crash, this one in Texas

[smadsen]

Looks like the smaller plane cut across inside the circle that was doing fly-bys. If so, small mistake in judgement, terrible consequences.

[Baz]

Horrifying and very sad.....condolences to all affected......

[Jeff Alton]

Terrible

Prayers and thoughts to the families of the folks involved.

Cheers

[KFC911]

Simply tragic... I don't need to see the video.

RIP and peace to all connected....

[VINMAN]

God, that's horrible.

.

[jcwade]

The fighters were following each other. The bombers were outside of their path.
The P-63 pilot was probably watching the P-51 in front of him and missed the huge bomber right in front of him.

R.I.P. to all involved and sincere sadness for all their families.

Trying to keep those old aircraft flying is a labor of love.
Not meaning to sound callous, but they died doing what they loved.

[red-beard]

I've been in that B-17. They would have a tiny airshow at West Houston Airport. Several of the CAF planes are stored there, nothing too fancy. But they would fly some of the other planes over and have them sit on the ground. Really fun to be able to get to touch the planes. They flew a few of them around at times.

So sad the pilots were killed. But also the loss of that history. So few of the planes are still flying.

[speeder]

This happens far too often at air shows. Crashes in general is what I mean. This one seems hard to explain and of course we can't ask the pilot but it's a big sky...how on earth do you just fly right into another (huge) plane like that?

[Tim Hancock]

The P 63 is a low wing aircraft.... Pilot has no visibility of what is below him. He would have been watching the P51 that he was following as he was manuevering to make the left hand turn. I doubt he ever saw the B17 as he hit it. Thankfully the end came quick being so close to the ground. So tragic.

My wife and kids were almost hit in a similar incident about 20 years ago when we were leaving a busy local grass strip fly-in. An old WW2 pilot friend saw us leaving the flyin and he decided to turn down to us to to fly up along side. He was in a descending turn and was in a Grumman Yankee low wing. He obviously lost sight of us and swept past from behind and above at high speed. I never saw him coming but my windshield suddenly completely filled with a flash of the gray color of his airplane.... To this day I do not know whether his tail missed us by 10" or 10'. It was very similar to situation in Texas. It gives me the willies just thinking about it to this day.

[Racerbvd]

[masraum]

Lots more info in this thread.
All Things Aviation Related

[herr_oberst]

This seems to be a fairly sensible analysis of what MIGHT have happened, by someone with a good knowledge of the aircraft, examining the visual evidence. I think his final description of the P-63 flight path and the sight limitations of the cockpit (and the why) are very interesting;

The number of planes in the 2 parades was kind of shocking to me; that must be a traffic control nightmare.

It's going to take a lot of time, many months, before we have a reasonably accurate depiction of events. Once agin, my heartfelt regrets and sympathy to all the families of all the victims.

[Jolly Amaranto]

[Jolly Amaranto]

Scroll ahead to about 22.0 for Dan's take on this.

[javadog]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C342dfNPCyg

[rfuerst911sc]

My wife's physical therapist knew the crew . He and his wife are WWII buffs and go to many events and simulated scenarios . They were heartbroken as they were recently at an event with that specific crew . So very sad .

[HobieMarty]

Originally Posted by javadog

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C342dfNPCyg

This was a very good explanation of things and I like how he explains how in formations, rule #1 never show them your belly.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[javadog]

The preliminary report is out and boy, do I have questions.

https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/GenerateNewestReport/106276/pdf

[Ayles]

Originally Posted by javadog

The preliminary report is out and boy, do I have questions.

https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/GenerateNewestReport/106276/pdf

Let me guess... Soros?

[Jolly Amaranto]

, the air boss directed both formations to
maneuver southwest of the runway before returning to the flying display area, which was the
designated performance area. He directed the fighter formation to transition to a trail
formation, fly in front of the bomber formation, and proceed near the 500 ft show line. The
bombers were directed to fly down the 1,000 ft show line. The 500 ft show line and 1,000 ft
show line were 500 ft and 1,000 ft respectively from the airshow viewing line behind which the
audience viewed the airshow.
There were no altitude deconflictions briefed before the flight or while the airplanes were in the
air.

I have heard the "Air Boss" was not very qualified. His dad had retired from that position and he stepped in to fill it. Did I hear nepotism?