A midair collision and crash involving two vintage military aircraft occurred at a WWII airshow in the US state of Texas.
The planes collided on Saturday, spewing black smoke into the air as they crashed to the ground and burst into flames.
The number of victims and injured people was not immediately known.
As reported by the Federal Aviation Administration, the incident included two aircraft, a Bell P-63 Kingcobra fighter and a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber from World War II, both of which were participating in the Wings Over Dallas Airshow at Dallas Executive Airport (FAA).
The number of passengers on board the two planes was unknown as emergency teams flocked to the crash site, airport officials reported on Twitter, according to the FAA.
At a press conference, Hank Coates, president and chief executive officer of the Commemorative Air Force (CAF), an organisation devoted to the preservation of World War Two fighter planes, revealed that the B-17 generally has a crew of four to five people.
Coates stated that there is only one pilot on board the P-63, but he would not disclose how many passengers were present at the time of the crash, their names, or their conditions.
The planes’ crumpled remains were visible in news footage taken on the spot, lying in a grassy meadow inside the airport’s boundaries.
There haven’t been any ground-level injuries, Dallas Fire-Rescue stated to the media.
The two planes collided in front of Anthony Montoya.
“I just stood there.” The air show went down when Montoya, 27, and a buddy were there. ”I was in complete shock and disbelief,” Montoya said. “Everybody around was gasping. Everybody was bursting into tears. Everybody was in shock.”
On Sunday, the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigators will reach the site of the collision in Dallas.
The NTSB has assumed responsibility for the crash site, according to Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, with assistance from the local police and fire departments.
Johnson stated, “The videos are heartbreaking.”
Social media users recorded videos of the incident, which appeared to show the fighter plane colliding with the bomber and sending both of them crashing to the earth in a flash of fire and smoke.
Texas resident Aubrey Anne Young, 37, who witnessed the incident, said, “It was really horrific to see.” When it happened, her kids and their father were in the hangar. “I’m still trying to make sense of it.”
Safety at air shows has long been an issue, especially with older military aircraft. 11 individuals lost their lives in Reno, Nevada in 2011 when a P-51 Mustang collided with onlookers. Seven people died in a bomber collision that occurred in Hartford, Connecticut, in 2019.
During that time, the NTSB reported that it had looked into 21 accidents involving bombers from World War II that had resulted in 23 fatalities since 1982.
