Update: Dallas Fire-Rescue and county judge Clay Jenkins say that six people died in a crash Saturday at Dallas Executive Airport.
“Authorities will continue working today on the investigation & identification of the deceased,” Jenkins said on social media. “Please pray for their families and all involved.”
The identities of the victims have not been released by the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office, though a union representing American Airlines pilots said two of those killed were former members, reports the Dallas Morning News.
Another tragic event befalls Dallas Executive (formerly Red Bird) Airport, after two small plans collided during the Wings Over Dallas air show, held annually on or around Veterans Day and known as “the Nation’s Premiere World War II Airshow.” Video of the crash is available on Facebook if you can stomach watching it. Nothing official on the status of the pilots or whether anyone else was on board has been reported at the time of this post, yet the footage shows two planes falling to pieces and falling from the air.
A B-17 and Bell P-63 Kingcobra collided at approximately 1:20 p.m. Saturday.
The crash happened at the Dallas Executive Airport, Dallas Fire-Rescue (DFR) has confirmed. North- and south-bound traffic has been shut down along Highway 67 due to debris, Dallas Police Department reported.
Here is what the Federal Aviation Administration released, via news station WFAA :
At this time, it is unknown how many people were on both aircraft.The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and will provide additional updates. After investigators verify the aircraft registration numbers at the scene, the FAA will release them (usually on the next business day) on this webpage. You can look up the aircraft by their registration numbers on this webpage. Neither agency identifies people involved in aircraft accidents.
In the last Advocate Oak Cliff print magazine, we ran a story about the history of small-plane crashes at the airport. The article was prompted by multiple incidents in just the past year.
A small plane made an emergency landing in the middle of Kiest Boulevard recently.
Some power lines were knocked down, along with a speed-limit sign, but there were no injuries and no fire or leaked fuel.
That October incident was the second emergency landing of a plane near Dallas Executive Airport in Oak Cliff this year. A small plane landed at Boulder Park in July.
Neither of the past months’ incidents resulted in serious injury.
But there were at least eight fatal plane crashes in our neighborhood between 1935 and 1950, according to a search of newspaper archives.
This is an evolving story. Please text or email if you were at the air show and would like to tell us what you saw. chughes@advocatemag.com, 972.697.8699.
