Six flight crew members were killed after a historic World War II heavy bomber and fighter plane were involved in a midair collision during a Dallas airshow.
Authorities say that the accident occurred during the Commemorative Air Force Wings Over Dallas event at Dallas Executive Airport in Texas on Saturday afternoon.
A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collided and crashed around 1.20 pm, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
“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 tweeted on Sunday.
On Saturday Leah Block, a spokesperson for Commemorative Air Force, told ABC News that she believed there were five crew members on the B-17 and one aboard the P-63. No paying cutomers were onboard the Houston based plane at the time.
An ABC News producer tweeted that all six people oboard the two planes “are feared to be dead” following the incident.
CAF President Hank Coates said on Saturday that he could not yet confirm the number of casualties but confirmed the B-17 normally flies with a crew of four or five and the P-63 is a single seat fighter.
“Obviously this is a very challenging time for the families. And when I say family, I also mean the CAF family and our customers that follow us all over the world and enjoy our shows,” he said.
CAF is a nonprofit group that owns more than 180 historic aircraft that appear in air shows across the US and around the world.
“This was a World War II flight demonstration-type airshow where we highlight the aircraft and their capabilities and what actually happened in WWII. It’s very patriotic. The maneuvers that they were going through were not dynamic at all. It was what we call bombers on parade,” Coates said.
Videos that emerged later from witnesses appeared to show the two planes crashed into each other in the skies over the airport as they flew together.
And another Twitter user added: “Witnessed it as well. It was a B-17 and a P-63. Absolutely awful to witness.”
The three-day event was being held in honour of Veteran’s Day, which took place on Friday.
The Dallas Police Department said that Dallas Fire and Rescue was responding to the incident which took place southwest of the city.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, with the NTSB will in charge of the probe.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott took to Twitter to comment on the “tragedy” in Dallas.
“Planes collide during air show at Dallas Executive Airport. The Texas Dept. of Public Safety, Texas Division of Emergency Management, and the Texas Dept. of Transportation are assisting local officials in responding to this tragedy.”
“The videos are heartbreaking,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson wrote on Twitter.
The B-17, a huge four-engine bomber, was a mainstay of US air power during World War II. The Kingcobra, a U fighter plane, was used mostly by Soviet forces during the conflict.
Only a handful of B-17s remain and mainly feature at ar shows or museums, acoridng to Boeing.
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 then that it had investigated 21 accidents since 1982 involving World War II-era bombers, resulting in 23 deaths.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
