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Lost another B17 today at the Dallas Executive airport show. The B17 was sliced into by a bell King Cobra while making a pass over the airfield. The B17 was the "Texas Raiders" stationed out of Harlingen. The same one I rode in three years ago checking off one of my bucket list items.
Piloting an aircraft is serious business. Having flown a tailing aircraft in formation myself, I always felt that flying in formation in VFR conditions required even more focus than many IFR flights. There are speed brakes on some aircraft but they are not used like car brakes. Here, I think the escorting aircraft lost sight of the B 17 which is a big no no.
Morning news feeds confirm pilot and crew in both planes died. A sad loss of life and history.
You can about count on this being one of the last vintage aircraft shows. Like our old cars, some neener who understands nothing about aircraft will start screeching they're unsafe and kill people and need to be permanently grounded. And again, like our old cars, driver/pilot error is the cause of most fatality crashes. Nine times out of ten the error was not made by the person operating the old machine.
It pissed me off badly when the CAF changed its name to Commemorative Air Force, but I still supported the group and will continue to do so as long as my finances permit it. It's criminal to allow these magnificent old warbirds to fade away.
There have been many airshow crashes over the years and air shows have continued. Just like those of the past this event will not cause air shows to be discontinued.
For an example of the resiliency of these events, notwithstanding loss of life, consider the Reno Air Show crash into the spectator stands.
I have been there and I will go back. There is nothing like unlimited piston power on the deck racing wingtip to wingtip around the pylons at well over 500 mph. And you are close and it is inherently dangerous. Another pilot was killed at this years race in September.
Last edited by Tri-Carb; Nov 13, 2022 at 09:14 AM.
Obviously, this was not a mechanical failure. If that had been the case, they might make a case that these planes are too old to fly. The magnitude of this tragedy cannot be defined.
In the video it appears the fighter was approaching the B17 with the larger plane under his field of vision. Couldn't do anything and had no idea this was going to happen. Just MHO.
Here is the 2022 Reno air race crash a couple of months ago. Making over 500 mph on the deck in a bank creates several G’s stress on both the pilot and the aircraft. Bad things can and do happen:
