“A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collided and crashed at the Wings Over Dallas airshow around 1:20 p.m. on Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.”
As a layman having seen one of the videos of the collision it doesn’t look like a survivable incident for anyone on either plane! At least it appears they didn’t crash into spectators!
The tag “Breaking News” has a grim irony for this thread. 
Twitter view, spoilered
Looks like the P63 collided right behind the wing and sheared off the rear fuselage and tail of the B-17 at low altitude.
I am pretty sure the B-17 lost was “Texas Raiders”. I toured it as an Aviation Explorer many years ago at Hobby Airport and even have a pic, somewhere, of myself looking out from the tail gunner’s position. I think it also appeared in an anti-litter commercial and always did the one-wheel pass at the big CAF airshows.
A sucky way to lose two rare aircraft and their crews.
That P-63 looked like an anti-aircraft missile.
This may not be the right thread, but… I don’t understand why people insist on flying these museum pieces. Pretty soon, they will all be gone, due to these constant crashes.
I had a flashback to the Ramstein disaster and though it’s tragic, I’m glad that no spectators and bystanders were harmed this time.
Having watched the twitter video, I can’t understand the mess of coordination this took to happen.
Another angle from twitter:
It looks like the P63 was third in a line of fighters turning in, two turn in a lot tighter and then the KingCobra comes in a bit wider (though that could be an illusion with the B-17 getting closer). The location doesn’t feel right for any of them to be on final and none have gear down. I wonder what if this was part of the Pearl Harbor simulation.
Add another view (imagine going to be lots of video). There are lots of aircraft in the air.
From this angle, it almost looks deliberate to this absolute layperson.
It looks to me like the impact of the collision tore the wings structure from the fuselage completely. The 2 parts then impacted separately. I didn’t think that was possible.
When I’ve seen air shows they seemed to fly in very strictly separated, regular, disciplined-looking patterns. The sky just before the collision looks like there were planes all over the place flying in every which way. That looked very strange for a demonstration show. Has anyone else seen an air show like that?
Not all surviving B-17’s are in flyable condition. Some are static museum displays.
People who love these airplanes also love to see them flying. The ethics of whether or not to fly them is a hotly debated topic in relevant circles.
Doesn’t look good. Video of the Kingcobra diving (apparently) into the fuselage of the B-17 during a flyover. Footage of the ground wreckage is pretty grim. Fox link has more bystander video, live news link at the NBC link (at least when I posted).
Links:
Current Thread:
Oops my mistake. I looked in MPSIMS and not anywhere else.
@pullin, do you want me to merge the 2 threads or just lock this one?
ETA: I’ll lock it pending your response. You can PM me.
I merged the threads and moved them to MPSIMS. That’s where breaking news threads general belong, and these were both breaking news threads
Damn.
I feel for the pilots and the passengers; but it’s a horrible loss of historic aircraft.
I mean if there’s only a single living example than yeah they shouldn’t fly but there are a ton of museums with grounded B-17s to check out so losing one in the air isn’t crippling to aviation history overall.
I agree. At the very least, it seems massive negligence by the P63 pilot.
Bad year for airshows. This sucks.
6 dead.