David G. That was my take from the video, too.
Shaking my head. Sorry, but formation flying like this has to be planned and practiced over and over, meticulously, with a lot of discipline and precision. What a tragic outcome for all involved.
Both aircraft are from my airport in Conroe, TX (KCXO). My heart has melted many a time watching the B-17 on the ramp right near me or taking off, or watching it fly over my house, and I just saw this very act with these same aircraft 2 weeks ago at the Houston airshow. I never met the pilots. What an awful tragedy.
I’m a Christian, so each death is painful. My concern arises with aviation safety and, in this case, the preservation of rare aircraft. There’s not much we can do to comfort their families and friends, but we can seek to prevent future tragedies.
We had “Nine-O-Nine” sitting on the ramp outside our flight operations building, and next to that B-17, there was a B-24 (“All American”). The Boeing pilot asked if he could perch above the bombers for a photo, and I obliged, leading him on the old “Indiana Jones” climb to the third floor, then up a ladder to the roof. He was grateful enough to offer me a free ride aboard the Boeing, but I had to work. Now that grand old bird is in the scrap yard. These planes are living history, and it’s very tragic when they’re damaged beyond repair.
“…it’s not like King Cobras grow on trees…” Really? Probably one of the most heartless comments I’ve ever heard. Please spare me your Christian pretense; humans don’t grow on trees either. As for what YOU can do to comfort their families and friends, you can step away from your keyboard for a while.
To be fair, a lot of ‘restored’ warbirds started out as a lot less that was was left after this tragedy.
It can be done, if the money is there. But increasingly that’s going to be in short supply.
Palm Springs Air Museum has a flying P-63A, Pretty Polly.
Thank you, Alan. Things don’t matter, people do.
I’m not using a pretense, but people die everyday in terrible ways, and I’ve seen hundreds of these tragedies both in person and viewing crash videos. If you folks want to grieve, go ahead. I am grieving another fatal accident, and this mishap involved the loss of a rare plane.
I dunno. If they do locate P-63 parts, they will likely be a barn find. Many of those planes were sent to Russia during WWII, so they’ll have to sneak into those barns.
I know the B17’s are named, any idea of which one this accident involved? How many B17’s are there still flying these days?
Prayers and best wishes for the families of all the crew from both aircraft.
The pro shops make the parts they need, no barns required.
The engines are the tricky bit, but the Allison in the P-63 isn’t unique to it.
Awful. Dozens of people close to them going to be irreparably touched by that.
Yeah, P-63 guy couldn’t see the bomber. How do get yourself in a place like that? We’ll know more in a couple of years when NTSB gets through with it. Maybe a lot sooner.
There used to be a P-63 at Lackland AFB; static display (+ a lot of other rare stuff). Probably still there. I lean towards fly 'em. Something to be said for both sides though.
How do you not see a B-17 in a planned demonstration flight? If this was anything like other demonstration flights I’ve seen, all of the planes flying at the time were part of a rehearsed sequence. I’ve never seen such a flight where another aircraft would make a maneuver like the P-63 did to buzz another aircraft, so someone must have been out of position by a significant amount. And if it wasn’t a rehearsed sequence, there must have been a serious break-down of air safety at this event.
In any case, this is much more than just two vintage aircraft colliding, and will come down to more than just “Failure of the P-63 pilot to maintain visual separation with the B-17”.
What a dramatic and terrible accident. Texas Raiders was a staple down here in Houston forever, and I got to see the P63 a few times at West Houston airport. Great planes and great men and “they” will be missed.
That doesn’t look like they were flying formation.
I don’t think they were flying formation at all. It’s an air show. Given the fighter was was turning, it seems they were probably supposed to be on parallel courses and either the fighter didn’t turn tight enough to stay in his space or the bomber was not on the correct path and flew through the fighter’s assigned space.
I’ve not flown in an air show, so I’m not sure how they separate, but I wonder if they were not supposed to be a hundred feet apart in altitude or if that’s considered less safe.
Is that the plane that used to spend a lot of time at Ellington?
That’s what I mean. I don’t think they were both supposed to be where they were, so someone was out of place, or the airboss cleared one of them into the airspace that wasn’t supposed to be. Something isn’t adding up here.