Deadly 2022 Dallas airshow crash caused by ‘inadequate planning,’ NTSB says
The midair collision that killed six people at a Dallas airshow in 2022 was caused by inadequate planning and oversight, according to a summary of a final report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
Two World War II-era planes, a Boeing B-17G bomber and a Bell P-63F fighter, collided while the eight planes involved in the performance were making a repositioning turn, according to a summary of the report released Monday, Dec. 9, by the NTSB.
During the maneuver at the Commemorative Air Force’s Wings Over Dallas show, the P-63F Kingcobra struck the left wing of the Boeing bomber from behind, causing both aircraft to crash, NTSB officials said. Videos taken by spectators showed the planes breaking apart and crashing to the ground in a ball of flames.
All five people onboard the B-17G were killed, as was the sole occupant of the Bell aircraft, according to the NTSB investigation.
Visibility simulations revealed the pilots involved in the Nov. 12, 2022, accident had limited sight of each other’s aircraft prior to the collision, according to the report.
Officials in charge of the air show did not create a preflight deconfliction plan, which ensures that air traffic and flight paths do not intersect, according to the report.
The show’s air boss, who was using binoculars and a two-way radio, directed the pilots’ movements from atop a set of stairs on the airfield, the NTSB said. Investigators interviewed crew members of the other planes and learned that some of the pilots were confused by the air boss’ “long stream of instructions,” the report states.
The NTSB’s investigators said that the air boss’s deconfliction strategy “was ineffective because the flight paths of the B-17G and the P-63F converged as each pilot maneuvered toward their respective show lines.”
Other safety issues mentioned in the report include the “lack of a risk assessment plan, unclear communication directives, the lack of requirements for recurrent evaluations of air bosses, inadequate air show safety assessment and reporting issues within the Commemorative Air Force and insufficient regulatory oversight.”
The NTSB found that the air show industry lacks standardized terms for directions to the pilots, and current regulations did not require a deconfliction plan to be discussed.
The investigation also found that the Federal Aviation Administration and the International Council of Air Shows “had not adequately considered the need to better mitigate the collision risks associated with performances involving multiple dissimilar aircraft.”
The NTSB has made recommendations to the FAA, the International Council of Air Shows and the Commemorative Air Force to correct these issues.
The five members of the B-17 flight crew were Terry Barker and Leonard “Len” Root, both of Keller; Dan Ragan, of Dallas; Curtis “Curt” Rowe, of Hilliard, Ohio; and Kevin “K5” Michels, of Austin. The P-63 was flown by Craig Hutain, who was from the Houston area.
The NTSB’s full report will be released on Thursday, Dec. 12, and available to the public via the accident investigation page for the incident, officials said.
This story was originally published December 9, 2024 at 4:57 PM.
