Air show crash in Dallas

That one lady's scream really hits home.

 

I don’t know how the flight was briefed, so it’s difficult to say how these three airplanes were supposed to work together at the point of the midair. I can say that it appears the P-36 was flying off of the other fighter type that went by ahead of the bomber since they both appear to be in the same bank and direction. When flying off of someone else, you concentrate on keeping that airplane in a certain position in your field of view. You’re not looking around so much except to glance at your instruments at (very) quick intervals. And things happen pretty fast so you really concentrate on maintaining position by watching the guy you’re flying off of. Here’s one example of how much you concentrate on and trust the guy you’re flying off of.

The P-36 probably never saw the bomber until it was in his windshield.

The accident report will state the cause of the crash was “two aircraft attempted to occupy the same airspace at the same time.”

 

Just found out that a friend of mine has tickets to ride in that B17 today. Life-long pilot, AF veteran, and flying enthusiast. His family bought them for his 70th birthday.

 

^^^^This.
Plus in these fighter type aircraft, visibility below you in a turn is zero. Those turns were supposed to be timed and he was likely flying loose formation on the guy ahead of him. I don't think he ever saw the B-17.

 

so tough to watch this. godspeed...

 

Was he on that particular flight? They usually do several throughout the weekend.

 

No, his tix were for today, not yesterday

.

 

I've heard it said from more than one regular tactical fighter pilot that they don't like flying airshows as they've all had, seen or heard of near mid-airs when taking part in one. It's just not something you do often enough to be proficient at, unlike the air demonstration squadrons that train specifically to do that kind of flying. For regular front-line squadrons, the combination of regular mission training (which is required by law, regular squadrons can't just participate in an airshow unless it's part of a standard training flight), and then the almost lackadaisical attitude to the "fun" part of the flight when returning to land the airplane, it's almost too easy to forget you've got a job to do. And when you're up there, just having fun doing mock bomb runs for the crowd, something you don't often practice over your own airfield, guys make the kind of errors that you don't train for, and then you end up with some sort of mishap.

 

Sucks to watch. RIP to all involved.

also sucks to loose another flying B17…that’s 2 now lost in the last couple years.

 

Just posted a video in the Youtube thread about this.