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Dallas Air Show Crash: New Details Emerge

We have new details surrounding the horrific Dallas air show crash that claimed the lives of six people on Veteran’s Day. According to a new federal report released on Wednesday, moments before the collision, a team of historic fighter places was ordered to fly ahead of a formation of bombers without any plan about altitudes. In addition, the new report did not reveal the cause of the mid-air crash.

In its preliminary findings, the National Transportation Safety Board said a P-63 Kingcobra fighter was turning left when it abruptly hit a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber behind the left wing.

Tragically, all six pilots aboard the historic WWII planes perished due to the Nov. 12 collision.

Per the report from the NTSB, there had been no prior planning of altitudes before the air show or while the pilots were in the air. The finding reveals that the Kingcobra was the third in a formation of three fighters. The B-17 was also leading the pack of the five-ship bomber formation.

NTSB spokesperson Eric Weiss said the agency is trying to understand the actions that led to the collision. They’re also looking into whether other air shows typically use plans for altitude deconfliction.

“Those are precisely the types of questions our investigators are asking,” Weiss said. “What was the process? What’s the correct process? And what happened?”

Agency reveals there was no altitude deconfliction meeting before Dallas Air Show

Former airline captain with more than half a century of experience, John Cox, was taken aback by the fact that the agency concluded that there wasn’t an altitude deconfliction meeting before or during the air show.

According to reports from an anonymous source, in the pre-show briefing, officials told air crews general altitude direction. Despite this, they did not give pilots specific altitudes the aircrafts were set to fly at.

The source added that, usually, fighters will fly over bombers, and when someone calls a pass, that could place planes at the same or almost the exact altitudes as the other planes.

The source adds that the air boss is responsible for making and adhering to a plan for maintaining altitude.

In addition, the NTSB said the air boss told the fighter formation to fly to a line 500 feet from where the onlookers were at the Dallas Executive Airport. However, they also told the bomber formation to fly 1,000 feet from the audience.

The agency also revealed that the bomb had a navigation device that “contained position information relevant to the accident.” However, a device on the fighter malfunctioned during the show and didn’t record.

On Wednesday, the Commemorative Air Force said they would continue working with the NTSB on the tragedy.

The victims who perished in the crash were volunteer pilots known as Terry Barker, Craig Hussain, Kevin Michels, Dan Ragan, Leonard Root, and Curt Rowe.