B-17 and P-63 lost at Dallas CAF show

I was thinking of this incident last evening as the Yankee Lady (Yankee Air Force B-17 out of KYIP in Michigan) flew overhead.
It made two more passes just after dusk - thrum of the four engines and twinkles from its nav lights so otherworldly.
Sad.

 

Just a stunning picture. And as eerie as the 9/11 impact pics. Makes me sad...

 

I'm not a pilot. But you have to wonder about traffic control in a situation where a lot of planes are flying in close formation. Slow planes flying with fast planes. At least on a race track, everybody understands the rule, you stay on the race line, it is up to the other guy to get around you. But that's in 2-D. I can't imagine 3-D.

 

I don’t think the FAA will allow anything like this in the future- dissimilar speeds like this.

 

This is at least the second Full Crew and plane loss of a B17.....aside from the human toll, they are running out of planes.

 

The above video by Juan Brown provides about the best video I have seen on this. Check out his channel if you have not done so, it does a good job at dissecting aviation mishaps.

https://www.youtube.com/blancolirio

A few screen shots from the accident....sad indeed.

 

Front view


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Thanks for posting the videos that fully describe what and how this happened. I didn't enjoy the images but they do tell the story with accuracy and shows what I was trying to describe as a blind turn. This is exactly what happened to a friend that was flying my L-3 when he pulled up into a large formation in front of a larger biplane that hit him in the center, three fatalities including both airplanes. The pilot of the biplane never saw the L-3 since it was climbing up under and ahead of him in the blind spot.

 

One video was enough to see. I had seen the B-17G flying over Houston quite often.

RIP.

 

I prefer to think that the P-63 pilot was accelerating and pulling a hard turn to catch the P-51s when he had a medical emergency and the plane crossed paths with the B-17.

 

Best video and one of the pilots that died was his check airman back in the day for I think airbus but possibly a boeing.

 

Why no altitude sepration?

I'm reminded These types of accidents and more happened daily during the war.

 

You are correct. I can't remember the number now but air force training fatalities during the were very high. One month Sarasota Air Base in early 1944 , the 302nd OTU was down to three P-40's, essentially wiped out from training accidents. Hardly a day went by that there wasn't at least one accident, in fact, in one day there were 4 fatal crashes. One of them was in the field behind our house. Over the 4 years of operation at Sarasota we saw P-39's first, then P-40's, and last was P-51's. I think that the worst record ws with the P-40's because it was difficult to land and the USAAF was cramming through anybody that could see and some 18 year old trainees should never have been in an airplane like the P-40.

 

25,844 USAAF trainees were killed accidents in the continental US during the war. About 20,000 more non-combatant losses over seas.

 

Major accident rate for AAF in 1946 was over 100 per 100,000 sorties. Now less than 2 for USAF.

 

Sobering Stats: 15,000 U.S. Airmen Killed in Training in WW II
https://www.realclearhistory.com/articles/2019/02/12/staggering_statistics_15000_us_airmen_killed_in_training_in_ww_ii_412.html

whether 15,000 or 25,000 the number is staggering. I had no idea. FUBAR situation.

.

 

The situation at that time demanded a frantic build up of our air force and they knew that there would be heavy losses in those who were put into training because the standards had been lowered to accept almost anybody. and the training was accelerated. Therefore they had to calculate a high attrition rate to get the number of pilots that they needed. In 1942-43 I saw more fatal crashes around our town than I did when I was in the service.

 

I was replying to the posts earlier in the thread suggesting that the collision looked like it might have been intentional. You'll note that I said that I seriously doubted that a CAF pilot would do that. My apologies if anyone misconstrued my comments.

 

Woke up this AM to this…up next, Aliens did it…

https://eurasiantimes.com/mid-air-horror-did-us-b-17-bomber-p-63-kingcobra-collide/?amp

 

Looks like the drone either hit the prop, or went into the engine. Plane immediately lost power.

 

Wait…what? You actually think this guy hit a drone with a ww2 fighter and the motor even burped and that somehow made the plane run into a football field sized bomber?