YOU WOULD HOPE SO
Experts: Dallas air show crash may lead to more safety rules
Texas air show victims named; New footage released
JUAN A. LOZANO, JIM SALTER and SEAN MURPHY
Mon, November 14, 2022
While the cause of a deadly collision between two vintage military aircraft at a Dallas air show to commemorate Veterans Day remains unknown, experts said Monday that the accident will likely renew discussion over whether additional safety rules are needed for such events.
Safety recommendations made following aircraft accidents at similar events have focused on protecting spectators, pilot medical fitness and aircraft maintenance.
“The (Federal Aviation Administration) has tightened airshow requirements. This will certainly raise the debate again,” said Steven Wallace, former director of the FAA's office of accident investigations.
On Monday, officials identified the six men killed Saturday when a World War II-era bomber and a fighter plane collided and crashed in a ball of flames at the Commemorative Air Force Wings Over Dallas show. All six were experienced aviators with years of flight training, including as current and retired airline pilots and retired military pilots.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into why the aircraft were flying at the same altitude and in the same air space, NTSB member Michael Graham said.
The Commemorative Air Force, which put on the show, identified the victims as: Terry Barker, Craig Hutain, Kevin “K5” Michels, Dan Ragan, Leonard “Len” Root, and Curt Rowe.
All of the men were volunteers, but each had gone through a strict process of logging hours and training flights and were vetted carefully, Hank Coates, the CEO of Commemorative Air Force said at a weekend news conference.
Officials have not publicly identified which of them were piloting the aircrafts.
Hutain, of Montgomery, Texas, had been a commercial airline pilot since 1985. He started flying at the age of 10 and had logged more than 34,500 flight hours, according to his LinkedIn page.
In a recent interview with Vintage Aviation News posted on YouTube, Hutain described aviation as a “lifelong obsession" passed down from his father, a bomber pilot in World War II.
Barker was a retired pilot who had worked for American Airlines and lived in Keller, Texas. He was an Army veteran who flew helicopters during his military service.
Rowe, a member of the Ohio Wing Civil Air Patrol, was a crew chief on the B-17, his brother-in-law Andy Keller told The Associated Press on Sunday. Rowe, of Hilliard, Ohio, participated in air shows several times a year because he loved WWII aircraft, Keller said.
Root, also from Keller, was a pilot and manager for the Gulf Coast Wing of the Commemorative Air Force who worked as a contract commercial pilot, according to his LinkedIn page.
There were no reports of injuries on the ground and that can probably be attributed to a “very careful evaluation over the decades” by the NTSB and FAA to protect spectators, said former NTSB investigator and safety author Alan Diehl.
Jeff Guzzetti, a pilot who spent more than 30 years investigating aircraft accidents for the NTSB and FAA, said while much of the regulatory focus over the decades has been on protecting spectators, other recommendations have led to incremental, cumulative safety improvements in emergency response, pilot medical fitness and aircraft maintenance at air shows.
John Cudahy, president of the International Council of Air Shows, a trade group that sets air show standards, said his group and others don’t typically get many recommendations from the FAA or the NTSB following such accidents because they don’t tend to result from systemic or procedural problems, or gross negligence.
“When they do make a recommendation, we listen very attentively. We are very collaborative,” Cudahy said.
Guzzetti said he doesn’t believe there has been “any systemic degradation of safety with these air shows.”
While the ages of those who died Saturday was not immediately known, James E. Hall, who was NTSB chairman from 1994 to 2001, said the age of the pilots is an issue that must be reviewed.
The planes need more scrutiny, too, “because like the crews in these situations, the aircraft are much older.”
Graham said investigators are analyzing radar and video footage to pinpoint the exact location of the collision. Debris will be carefully examined, along with audio recordings from the air traffic control tower, pilot training records and aircraft maintenance records, he said.
Neither aircraft was equipped with a flight-data recorder or a cockpit voice recorder, separate devices referred to collectively as the black boxes, and neither were required to have those devices, Graham said.
Although rain was hampering the collection of pieces of the B-17 bomber, Graham said Monday an electronic flight display from the B-17 and a GPS navigational unit from the fighter, both damaged, will be sent to an NTSB laboratory to see if data can be recovered.
He said it’s also possible the NTSB could recommend vintage aircraft install flight data recorders.
The crash came three years after the crash of a bomber in Connecticut that killed seven, and amid ongoing concern about the safety of air shows involving older warplanes. The company that owned the planes at the Dallas show has had other crashes in its more than 60-year history.
A preliminary report from the NTSB is expected in four to six weeks, and a final report will take up to 18 months to complete.
The B-17, a cornerstone of U.S. air power during World War II, is an immense four-engine bomber that was used in daylight raids against Germany. The Kingcobra, a U.S. fighter plane, was used mostly by Soviet forces during the war. Most B-17s were scrapped at the end of World War II and only a handful remain today, largely featured at museums and air shows, according to Boeing.
JUAN A. LOZANO, JIM SALTER and SEAN MURPHY
Mon, November 14, 2022
While the cause of a deadly collision between two vintage military aircraft at a Dallas air show to commemorate Veterans Day remains unknown, experts said Monday that the accident will likely renew discussion over whether additional safety rules are needed for such events.
Safety recommendations made following aircraft accidents at similar events have focused on protecting spectators, pilot medical fitness and aircraft maintenance.
“The (Federal Aviation Administration) has tightened airshow requirements. This will certainly raise the debate again,” said Steven Wallace, former director of the FAA's office of accident investigations.
On Monday, officials identified the six men killed Saturday when a World War II-era bomber and a fighter plane collided and crashed in a ball of flames at the Commemorative Air Force Wings Over Dallas show. All six were experienced aviators with years of flight training, including as current and retired airline pilots and retired military pilots.
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into why the aircraft were flying at the same altitude and in the same air space, NTSB member Michael Graham said.
The Commemorative Air Force, which put on the show, identified the victims as: Terry Barker, Craig Hutain, Kevin “K5” Michels, Dan Ragan, Leonard “Len” Root, and Curt Rowe.
All of the men were volunteers, but each had gone through a strict process of logging hours and training flights and were vetted carefully, Hank Coates, the CEO of Commemorative Air Force said at a weekend news conference.
Officials have not publicly identified which of them were piloting the aircrafts.
Hutain, of Montgomery, Texas, had been a commercial airline pilot since 1985. He started flying at the age of 10 and had logged more than 34,500 flight hours, according to his LinkedIn page.
In a recent interview with Vintage Aviation News posted on YouTube, Hutain described aviation as a “lifelong obsession" passed down from his father, a bomber pilot in World War II.
Barker was a retired pilot who had worked for American Airlines and lived in Keller, Texas. He was an Army veteran who flew helicopters during his military service.
Rowe, a member of the Ohio Wing Civil Air Patrol, was a crew chief on the B-17, his brother-in-law Andy Keller told The Associated Press on Sunday. Rowe, of Hilliard, Ohio, participated in air shows several times a year because he loved WWII aircraft, Keller said.
Root, also from Keller, was a pilot and manager for the Gulf Coast Wing of the Commemorative Air Force who worked as a contract commercial pilot, according to his LinkedIn page.
There were no reports of injuries on the ground and that can probably be attributed to a “very careful evaluation over the decades” by the NTSB and FAA to protect spectators, said former NTSB investigator and safety author Alan Diehl.
Jeff Guzzetti, a pilot who spent more than 30 years investigating aircraft accidents for the NTSB and FAA, said while much of the regulatory focus over the decades has been on protecting spectators, other recommendations have led to incremental, cumulative safety improvements in emergency response, pilot medical fitness and aircraft maintenance at air shows.
John Cudahy, president of the International Council of Air Shows, a trade group that sets air show standards, said his group and others don’t typically get many recommendations from the FAA or the NTSB following such accidents because they don’t tend to result from systemic or procedural problems, or gross negligence.
“When they do make a recommendation, we listen very attentively. We are very collaborative,” Cudahy said.
Guzzetti said he doesn’t believe there has been “any systemic degradation of safety with these air shows.”
While the ages of those who died Saturday was not immediately known, James E. Hall, who was NTSB chairman from 1994 to 2001, said the age of the pilots is an issue that must be reviewed.
The planes need more scrutiny, too, “because like the crews in these situations, the aircraft are much older.”
Graham said investigators are analyzing radar and video footage to pinpoint the exact location of the collision. Debris will be carefully examined, along with audio recordings from the air traffic control tower, pilot training records and aircraft maintenance records, he said.
Neither aircraft was equipped with a flight-data recorder or a cockpit voice recorder, separate devices referred to collectively as the black boxes, and neither were required to have those devices, Graham said.
Although rain was hampering the collection of pieces of the B-17 bomber, Graham said Monday an electronic flight display from the B-17 and a GPS navigational unit from the fighter, both damaged, will be sent to an NTSB laboratory to see if data can be recovered.
He said it’s also possible the NTSB could recommend vintage aircraft install flight data recorders.
The crash came three years after the crash of a bomber in Connecticut that killed seven, and amid ongoing concern about the safety of air shows involving older warplanes. The company that owned the planes at the Dallas show has had other crashes in its more than 60-year history.
A preliminary report from the NTSB is expected in four to six weeks, and a final report will take up to 18 months to complete.
The B-17, a cornerstone of U.S. air power during World War II, is an immense four-engine bomber that was used in daylight raids against Germany. The Kingcobra, a U.S. fighter plane, was used mostly by Soviet forces during the war. Most B-17s were scrapped at the end of World War II and only a handful remain today, largely featured at museums and air shows, according to Boeing.
Some recent fatal crashes involving vintage aircraft
Debris from two planes that crashed during an airshow at Dallas Executive Airport are shown in Dallas on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022
Debris from two planes that crashed during an airshow at Dallas Executive Airport are shown in Dallas on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022
(AP Photo/LM Otero)
The Associated Press
Mon, November 14, 2022
The collision between two World War II-era military planes at a Dallas air show on Saturday was the latest in a long list of crashes involving vintage planes used or designed for military purposes. Some recent fatal crashes in the U.S. and abroad:
— Nov. 12, 2022: A P-63 Kingcobra fighter plane collided with a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber at a Dallas air show, killing all six people aboard the two vintage aircraft.
— Oct. 2, 2019: A four-engine, propeller-driven B-17G Flying Fortress bomber with 13 people aboard crashed at Bradley International Airport, north of Hartford, Connecticut, during a traveling vintage aircraft show. Seven people were killed and six were hurt. The National Transportation Safety Board found that pilot error was the probable cause, with inadequate maintenance a contributing factor.
— Nov. 17, 2018: A privately owned vintage World War II Mustang fighter airport plane crashed into the parking lot of an apartment complex in Fredericksburg, Texas, killing the pilot and a passenger. The P-51D Mustang was returning after performing a flyover during a living history show at the national Museum of the Pacific War. The aircraft was destroyed, and several vehicles in the parking lot were damaged.
— Aug. 4, 2018: A 79-year-old Junkers Ju-52 plane operated by the Swiss company Ju-Air plunged into the Piz Segnas mountain near the Flims ski resort in eastern Switzerland, killing all 20 on board. Retired from Switzerland’s air force in 1981, the German-built plane was carrying tourists who wanted to take “adventure flights” to experience the country’s landscape in vintage planes. Swiss investigators said that “high-risk flying” by the pilots led to the crash.
— May 30, 2018: A small vintage airplane that was part of a GEICO stunt team with five other planes crashed in a wooded residential area in Melville, New York, killing the pilot. The World War II-era SNJ-2 aircraft, known as a North American T-6 Texan, had departed from a nearby airport and was heading to Maryland when it crashed.
— July 16, 2017: A pilot and an airport manager were killed in Cummings, Kansas, after their World War II-era P-51D Mustang “Baby Duck” crashed into a field. Authorities say the pilot was re-creating a stunt he had performed on the prior day at the Amelia Earhart Festival.
— Jan. 26, 2017: A World War II-era Grumman G-73 Mallard flying boat stalled and nosedived into the Swan River in Perth, Australia, during Australia Day celebrations. Both the pilot and his passenger died.
— Aug. 27, 2016 — A pilot from Alaska was killed when his 450 Stearman biplane, a World War II-era plane often used for military training, crashed during the Airshow of the Cascades in Madras, Oregon.
— July 17, 2016 — A T-28 Trojan, used by the U.S. military as a training aircraft beginning in the 1950s and also as a counterinsurgency aircraft during the Vietnam War, crashed at the Cold Lake Air Show in Alberta, killing the pilot. Thousands of spectators witnessed the accident.
— Aug. 22, 2015 — A 1950s-era Hawker Hunter T7 jet crashed into a busy highway near West Sussex, England, killing 11 and injuring more than a dozen others. Investigators said the pilot, who survived, was flying too low and slowly to successfully complete a loop-the-loop. He was charged with 11 counts of manslaughter but ultimately was cleared.
— June 22, 2013 — A pilot and a wing-walker were killed when their World War II-era Boeing-Stearman IB75A biplane crashed into the ground and burst into flames during a performance at the Vectren Dayton Air Show in Vandalia, Ohio. Thousands of spectators saw the crash, which federal safety investigators said was likely caused by pilot error.
— Sept. 16, 2011 — The pilot of a 70-year-old modified P-51D Mustang called the Galloping Ghost lost control of the aircraft at the National Championship Air Races and Air Show in Reno, Nevada, and crashed into spectators, killing 10 and injuring more than 60. The pilot also died. Federal investigators blamed the crash on worn parts and speed.
The Associated Press
Mon, November 14, 2022
The collision between two World War II-era military planes at a Dallas air show on Saturday was the latest in a long list of crashes involving vintage planes used or designed for military purposes. Some recent fatal crashes in the U.S. and abroad:
— Nov. 12, 2022: A P-63 Kingcobra fighter plane collided with a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber at a Dallas air show, killing all six people aboard the two vintage aircraft.
— Oct. 2, 2019: A four-engine, propeller-driven B-17G Flying Fortress bomber with 13 people aboard crashed at Bradley International Airport, north of Hartford, Connecticut, during a traveling vintage aircraft show. Seven people were killed and six were hurt. The National Transportation Safety Board found that pilot error was the probable cause, with inadequate maintenance a contributing factor.
— Nov. 17, 2018: A privately owned vintage World War II Mustang fighter airport plane crashed into the parking lot of an apartment complex in Fredericksburg, Texas, killing the pilot and a passenger. The P-51D Mustang was returning after performing a flyover during a living history show at the national Museum of the Pacific War. The aircraft was destroyed, and several vehicles in the parking lot were damaged.
— Aug. 4, 2018: A 79-year-old Junkers Ju-52 plane operated by the Swiss company Ju-Air plunged into the Piz Segnas mountain near the Flims ski resort in eastern Switzerland, killing all 20 on board. Retired from Switzerland’s air force in 1981, the German-built plane was carrying tourists who wanted to take “adventure flights” to experience the country’s landscape in vintage planes. Swiss investigators said that “high-risk flying” by the pilots led to the crash.
— May 30, 2018: A small vintage airplane that was part of a GEICO stunt team with five other planes crashed in a wooded residential area in Melville, New York, killing the pilot. The World War II-era SNJ-2 aircraft, known as a North American T-6 Texan, had departed from a nearby airport and was heading to Maryland when it crashed.
— July 16, 2017: A pilot and an airport manager were killed in Cummings, Kansas, after their World War II-era P-51D Mustang “Baby Duck” crashed into a field. Authorities say the pilot was re-creating a stunt he had performed on the prior day at the Amelia Earhart Festival.
— Jan. 26, 2017: A World War II-era Grumman G-73 Mallard flying boat stalled and nosedived into the Swan River in Perth, Australia, during Australia Day celebrations. Both the pilot and his passenger died.
— Aug. 27, 2016 — A pilot from Alaska was killed when his 450 Stearman biplane, a World War II-era plane often used for military training, crashed during the Airshow of the Cascades in Madras, Oregon.
— July 17, 2016 — A T-28 Trojan, used by the U.S. military as a training aircraft beginning in the 1950s and also as a counterinsurgency aircraft during the Vietnam War, crashed at the Cold Lake Air Show in Alberta, killing the pilot. Thousands of spectators witnessed the accident.
— Aug. 22, 2015 — A 1950s-era Hawker Hunter T7 jet crashed into a busy highway near West Sussex, England, killing 11 and injuring more than a dozen others. Investigators said the pilot, who survived, was flying too low and slowly to successfully complete a loop-the-loop. He was charged with 11 counts of manslaughter but ultimately was cleared.
— June 22, 2013 — A pilot and a wing-walker were killed when their World War II-era Boeing-Stearman IB75A biplane crashed into the ground and burst into flames during a performance at the Vectren Dayton Air Show in Vandalia, Ohio. Thousands of spectators saw the crash, which federal safety investigators said was likely caused by pilot error.
— Sept. 16, 2011 — The pilot of a 70-year-old modified P-51D Mustang called the Galloping Ghost lost control of the aircraft at the National Championship Air Races and Air Show in Reno, Nevada, and crashed into spectators, killing 10 and injuring more than 60. The pilot also died. Federal investigators blamed the crash on worn parts and speed.
No comments:
Post a Comment