Anthony Montoya saw the two planes collide. “I just stood there. I was in complete shock and disbelief,” said Montoya, 27, who watched the air show with a friend. “Everyone around was gasping. Everyone burst into tears. Everyone was shocked.” Emergency crews raced to the crash site at Dallas Executive Airport, about 10 miles from downtown. Live television news footage from the scene showed people setting up orange cones around the crumpled wreckage of the bomber, which lay in a grassy area. The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collided and crashed around 1:20 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The collision occurred during the Commemorative Air Force Wings Over Dallas show. The B-17, a massive four-engine bomber, was the cornerstone of US air power during World War II. The Kingcobra, an American fighter plane, was used primarily by Soviet forces during the war. Most B-17s were scrapped at the end of World War II, and only a few remain today, largely on display in museums and air shows, according to Boeing. Multiple videos posted on Twitter showed the fighter jet flying into the bomber, causing it to quickly fall to the ground and set off a large ball of fire and smoke. “It was really horrible to see,” Aubrey Anne Young, 37, of Leander. Texas, which saw the crash. Her children were inside the shed with their father when it happened. “I’m still trying to make sense of it.” A woman next to Young can be heard crying and screaming hysterically in a video Young posted to her Facebook page. Airshow safety – particularly with older military aircraft – has been a concern for years. In 2011, 11 people were killed in Reno, Nevada, when a P-51 Mustang crashed into spectators. In 2019, a bomber crashed in Hartford, Connecticut, killing seven people. The NTSB said at the time that it had investigated 21 accidents since 1982 involving World War II-era bombers, resulting in 23 deaths. Wings Over Dallas bills itself as “America’s Premier World War II Airshow,” according to a website advertising the event. The show was scheduled for Nov. 11-13, Veterans Day weekend, and visitors were to see more than 40 World War II-era aircraft. Saturday afternoon’s program included flying displays, including a “bomber parade” and “fighter escorts” included B-17s and P-63s. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board have launched investigations.
