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Tag: Plane crashes

  • Airplane crash in Gulf of Mexico leaves 2 dead, 1 missing

    Airplane crash in Gulf of Mexico leaves 2 dead, 1 missing

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    VENICE, Fla. — A private airplane crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast Saturday night, with two people confirmed dead as authorities searched for a third person believed to have been on the flight, police said.

    Authorities in Venice, Florida, initiated a search Sunday after 10 a.m. following a Federal Aviation Administration inquiry to the Venice Municipal Airport about an overdue single-engine Piper Cherokee that had not returned to its origin airport in St. Petersburg, Florida.

    Around the same time, recreational boaters found the body of a woman floating about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) west of the Venice shore, city of Venice spokesperson Lorraine Anderson said in a statement.

    Divers from the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office located the wreckage of the rented airplane around 2 p.m. about a third of a mile offshore, directly west of the Venice airport, Anderson said.

    Rescuers found a deceased girl in the plane’s passenger area. A third person, believed to be a male who was the pilot or a passenger, remained missing Sunday, Anderson said.

    The county sheriff’s office, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Sarasota Police Department, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the District 12 Medical Examiner’s Office and the National Transportation Safety Board were involved in the investigation, Anderson said.

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  • Today in History: December 1, Ukraine chooses independence

    Today in History: December 1, Ukraine chooses independence

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    Today in History

    Today is Thursday, Dec. 1, the 335th day of 2022. There are 30 days left in the year.

    Today’s Highlight in History:

    On Dec. 1, 1991, Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence from the Soviet Union.

    On this date:

    In 1824, the presidential election was turned over to the U.S. House of Representatives when a deadlock developed among John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford and Henry Clay. (Adams ended up the winner.)

    In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln sent his Second Annual Message to Congress, in which he called for the abolition of slavery, and went on to say, “Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves.”

    In 1941, Japan’s Emperor Hirohito approved waging war against the United States, Britain and the Netherlands after his government rejected U.S. demands contained in the Hull Note.

    In 1942, during World War II, nationwide gasoline rationing went into effect in the United States; the goal was not so much to save on gas, but to conserve rubber that was desperately needed for the war effort by reducing the use of tires.

    In 1952, the New York Daily News ran a front-page story on Christine Jorgensen’s sex-reassignment surgery with the headline, “Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty”.

    In 1955, Rosa Parks, a Black seamstress, was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus; the incident sparked a year-long boycott of the buses by Blacks.

    In 1965, an airlift of refugees from Cuba to the United States began in which thousands of Cubans were allowed to leave their homeland.

    In 1969, the U.S. government held its first draft lottery since World War II.

    In 1974, TWA Flight 514, a Washington-bound Boeing 727, crashed in Virginia after being diverted from National Airport to Dulles International Airport; all 92 people on board were killed. Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, a Boeing 727, crashed near Stony Point, New York, with the loss of its three crew members (the plane had been chartered to pick up the Baltimore Colts football team in Buffalo, New York).

    In 2005, a roadside bomb killed 10 U.S. Marines near Fallujah, Iraq.

    In 2009, President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 more U.S. troops into the war in Afghanistan but promised during a speech to cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to begin withdrawals in 18 months.

    In 2020, disputing President Donald Trump’s persistent, baseless claims, Attorney General William Barr told The Associated Press that the U.S. Justice Department had uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election. Trump filed a lawsuit in Wisconsin seeking to disqualify more than 221,000 ballots in a longshot attempt to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s win in the battleground state.

    Ten years ago: Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher fatally shot his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and took his own life in front of the team’s coach and general manager. Enrique Pena Nieto took the oath of office as Mexico’s new president, vowing to restore peace and security.

    Five years ago: Retired general Michael Flynn, who served as President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about reaching out to the Russians on Trump’s behalf. (Flynn would be pardoned by Trump after twice pleading guilty to lying to the FBI.)

    One year ago: As the Supreme Court heard arguments on a challenge to a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, members of the court’s conservative majority signaled that they would allow states to ban abortion much earlier in pregnancy and possibly even overturn the nationwide right that had existed for nearly 50 years. (In June 2022, the court would use the Mississippi case to overturn its Roe v. Wade decision and remove women’s constitutional protections for abortion.) The U.S. recorded its first confirmed case of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, in a vaccinated traveler who returned to California after a trip to South Africa.

    Today’s Birthdays: Actor-director Woody Allen is 87. World Golf Hall of Famer Lee Trevino is 83. Singer Dianne Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) is 83. Television producer David Salzman is 79. Rock singer-musician Eric Bloom (Blue Oyster Cult) is 78. Rock musician John Densmore (The Doors) is 78. Actor-singer Bette Midler is 77. Singer Gilbert O’Sullivan is 76. Former child actor Keith Thibodeaux (TV: “I Love Lucy”) is 72. Actor Treat Williams is 71. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is 70. Country singer Kim Richey is 66. Actor Charlene Tilton is 64. Actor-model Carol Alt is 62. Actor Jeremy Northam is 61. Actor Katherine LaNasa is 56. Producer-director Andrew Adamson is 56. Actor Nestor Carbonell is 55. Actor Golden Brooks is 52. Actor-comedian Sarah Silverman is 52. Actor Ron Melendez is 50. Contemporary Christian singer Bart Millard (MIL’-urd) is 50. Actor-writer-producer David Hornsby is 47. Singer Sarah Masen is 47. Rock musician Brad Delson (Linkin Park) is 45. Actor Nate Torrence is 45. Rock/Christian music singer-songwriter Mat Kearney is 44. Actor Riz Ahmed (Film: “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”) is 40. Actor Charles Michael Davis is 38. Actor Ilfenesh Hadera is 37. R&B singer-actor Janelle Monae is 37. Actor Ashley Monique Clark is 34. Pop-rock-rap singer Tyler Joseph (Twenty One Pilots) is 34. Actor Zoe Kravitz is 34. Pop singer Nico Sereba (Nico & Vinz) is 32. Actor Jackson Nicoll is 19.

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  • Report: No altitude advice before Dallas air show crash

    Report: No altitude advice before Dallas air show crash

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    DALLAS — Just before a midair collision that killed six at a Dallas air show, a group of historic fighter planes was told to fly ahead of a formation of bombers without any prior plan for coordinating altitude, according to a federal report released Wednesday. The report did not give a cause of the crash.

    A P-63 Kingcobra fighter was banking left when it struck a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber behind the left wing during the Nov. 12 air show featuring World War II-era planes, the National Transportation Safety Board said in its preliminary findings. All six people aboard the planes — the pilot of the fighter and the bomber’s pilot, co-pilot and three crew members — died as both aircraft broke apart in flight, with the bomber catching fire and then exploding on impact.

    There had been no coordination of altitudes in briefings before the flight or while the planes were in the air, the NTSB said. The report said that the Kingcobra was the third in a formation of three fighters and the B-17 was the lead of a five-ship bomber formation.

    Eric Weiss, an NTSB spokesperson, said the agency is trying to determine the sequence of maneuvers that led to the crash. It is also examining whether such air shows normally have altitude deconfliction plans.

    “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?”

    John Cox, a former airline captain with more than 50 years’ experience, was surprised that the NTSB found there wasn’t an altitude deconfliction brief before or during the flight. He said these take place in other air shows, but he’s not certain whether they’re standard for the Commemorative Air Force, which put on the Wings over Dallas show.

    A person familiar with the show’s operations that day said the air crews were given general altitude direction in their morning pre-show briefing. However, there was not a discussion of specific altitudes for each pass the aircraft were going to perform, said the person, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.

    Typically fighters fly above bombers, and when a group is called to make a pass that could put planes at the same or nearly the same altitudes, they maintain a lateral separation from each other, the person said. In general, the person continued, it’s the responsibility of the air boss to set out a plan for maintaining either vertical or lateral separation.

    Wings Over Dallas was the group’s last show of the season, the person said.

    The NTSB said the fighter formation had been told by the air boss to proceed to a line that was 500 feet (152 meters) from where the audience was lined up at Dallas Executive Airport, while the bomber formation was told to fly 1,000 feet (304 meters) from the audience viewing area.

    The NTSB said a navigation device on the bomber “contained position information relevant to the accident” but a device on the fighter didn’t record during the flight.

    The Commemorative Air Force, which put on the show for Veterans Day, said Wednesday that they’re continuing to work with the NTSB and are grateful for that agency’s “diligence in looking into anything that could have been a factor to cause the accident.” The group said they can’t speculate on the crash’s cause.

    The Commemorative Air Force previously identified the victims as: Terry Barker, Craig Hutain, Kevin “K5” Michels, Dan Ragan, Leonard “Len” Root and Curt Rowe.

    All the men were volunteers who had gone through a strict process of logging hours and training flights and were vetted carefully, Hank Coates, CEO of Commemorative Air Force, said after the crash.

    Cox said the planes were flown by experienced pilots and that it’s “virtually certain” the pilot of the smaller, more maneuverable fighter didn’t see the bomber. He said understanding how this happened will be a central challenge for investigators.

    “What happened for two pilots of this skill level to end up in the same airspace at the same time?” said Cox, the founder of Safety Operating Systems, which helps smaller airlines and corporate flight services around the world with safety planning.

    The air show collision came three years after the crash of a bomber in Connecticut that killed seven, and amid ongoing concern about the safety of shows involving older warplanes.

    The B-17, a cornerstone of U.S. air power during World War II, is an immense four-engine bomber that was used in daylight raids against Germany. The Kingcobra, a U.S. fighter, was used mostly by Soviet forces during the war. Most B-17s were scrapped at the end of World War II and only a handful remain today, largely featured at museums and air shows, according to Boeing.

    ———

    Associated Press writer Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.

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    Follow AP’s full coverage of plane crashes: https://apnews.com/hub/plane-crashes

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  • 2 rescued after plane hits transmission tower in Maryland

    2 rescued after plane hits transmission tower in Maryland

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    MONTGOMERY VILLAGE, Md. — Crews on Monday rescued the injured pilot and passenger of a small plane that crashed into a Maryland electricity transmission tower, knocking out power for tens of thousands of customers and leaving the aircraft dangling 10 stories off the ground.

    The plane crashed into the tower that supports high-tension lines at around 5:40 p.m. Sunday and got stuck about 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground, Montgomery County Fire Chief Scott Goldstein said. The crash happened about a mile from the Montgomery County Airpark in Montgomery Village, a Washington, D.C., suburb. It knocked out power in the surrounding area and caused Metrorail delays.

    Video from the scene showed numerous rescue personnel and vehicles surrounding the tower shortly after it happened. At the time of the crash, the conditions were misty and rainy, said Pete Piringer, a spokesperson for the county’s Fire & Rescue Service.

    Piringer said the rescue was complicated by the fact that the lines were live when the plane hit.

    After electrical workers made sure it was safe to try to reach the pilot and passenger, who were in contact with authorities via cellphone and were anxious to be rescued, crews secured the plane to the tower at around 12:15 a.m. Monday and took the two to safety a few minutes later, officials said.

    The State Police identified the pilot as Patrick Merkle, 65, of Washington, D.C., and the passenger as Janet Williams, 66, of Marrero, Louisiana. Both had serious but non-life-threatening injuries, and hypothermia set in while they waited to be rescued, Goldstein said. Their rescue was faster than anticipated since the pilot and passenger were able to assist, he said.

    The plane was later lowered to the ground revealing a crushed front end.

    The single-engine Mooney M20J had departed White Plains, New York, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The FAA, National Transportation Safety Board and Maryland State Police are investigating.

    The utility Pepco had reported that power was temporarily cut to about 120,000 customers in Montgomery County, but it was restored to most of them before the people were rescued.

    The county’s public school system closed its schools and offices Monday due to the outage’s impact on safety and school operations.

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  • Small plane caught in power lines after crash, passengers OK

    Small plane caught in power lines after crash, passengers OK

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    GAITHERSBURG, Md. — A small plane crashed into and got stuck in live power lines Sunday evening in Maryland, causing widespread power outages in the surrounding county as officials tried to extricate the plane.

    It wasn’t immediately clear how many people were aboard. Pete Piringer, chief spokesperson for the Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service, initially tweeted that two people were on the plane. He later posted a video message that said three people were on board and uninjured.

    The video showed a small white plane positioned nose up near a power tower. The plane was stuck about 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground, and the transmission lines remained live, complicating rescue efforts, Piringer said.

    “Everything is still energized at this time,” he said.

    The utility Pepco reported that about 80,000 customers were without power in Montgomery County.

    The crash took place in Gaithersburg, a small city about 24 miles (39 kilometers) northwest of Washington, D.C.

    Piringer didn’t state a suspected cause for the crash.

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  • 4 who died in plane crash outside Seattle identified

    4 who died in plane crash outside Seattle identified

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    SNOHOMISH, Wash. — The names of four people killed in a small plane crash northeast of Seattle last week were released by medical examiners on Wednesday.

    The Snohomish County Medical Examiner said the victims included three men from Washington state: Nathan Precup, 33, of Seattle; Nate Lachendro, 49, of Gig Harbor, and Scott Brenneman, 52, of Roy; as well as David Newton, 67, of Wichita, Kansas.

    The plane’s right wing broke away from the aircraft during the morning flight from Renton, the National Transportation Safety Board said this week. The plane crashed and then burned in a field near Snohomish. The victims all died of blunt-force injuries, according to the medical examiner’s office.

    Raisbeck Engineering of Seattle was having the Cessna 208B test flown before modifying the aircraft, according to a statement from Raisbeck President Hal Chrisman.

    He said the aircraft had not yet been modified. The flight crew included two “highly-experienced” test pilots, a flight test director and an instrumentation engineer who were collecting “baseline aircraft performance data,” Chrisman said.

    It was unclear who was responsible for which task. Due to the ongoing investigation, the company declined to disclose any further information, the Herald reported.

    A preliminary report is expected in the next few weeks. The final report, which would identify the probable cause for the crash, could take up to two years.

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  • Official: Truck struck by plane on Lima runway was in drill

    Official: Truck struck by plane on Lima runway was in drill

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    LIMA, Peru — Peruvian officials said a fire truck that collided with a LATAM Airlines plane on a runway at Lima’s international airport was taking part in a nearby fire drill and entered the runway without authorization.

    Flight LA2213, operated with an Airbus 320neo, was taking off from Lima’s airport for the city of Juliaca in southern Peru on Friday when the truck entered the runway and was hit by a wing of the plane. Part of the plane caught fire, but none of the crew or passengers were injured.

    However, two airport firefighters in the truck were killed and a third was injured.

    The firefighters were participating in a disaster response exercise, officials said in a news conference Saturday. They said the drill was part of the preparations for a new runway, scheduled to be ready next January.

    “In the audios that we have, there was clearly no authorization for any vehicle to enter the runway,” said Jorge Salinas, president of the country’s aeronautical agency, Corpac. “This case was a runway incursion. We do not know why it happened, if the cause was human, mechanical or of nature? That is being investigated. Let’s not speculate.”

    Lima’s Jorge Chavez International Airport had been scheduled to resume operations at 1 p.m. Saturday but extended the suspension of operations until midnight Sunday.

    The Prosecutor’s Office is also investigating the accident.

    There were 102 passengers and six crew members aboard the Airbus A320neo.

    LATAM Airlines has said it lamented the death of the firefighters and would provide flexibility to reprogram flights to affected passengers at no extra cost. But it said it did not know why the firetruck was on the runway.

    “No emergency was reported on the flight It was a flight that was in optimal conditions to take off, it had authorization to take off and it encountered a truck on the runway and we don’t know what the truck was doing there,” Manuel van Oordt, general manager of LATAM Airlines Peru, said.

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  • 4 die outside Seattle after Alaska company’s plane crashes

    4 die outside Seattle after Alaska company’s plane crashes

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    SNOHOMISH, Wash. — Four people were killed in a fiery plane crash Friday morning northeast of Seattle, authorities said Saturday.

    The single-engine Cessna 208B crashed in a field, the Federal Aviation Administration said, not too far from a small airport near Snohomish. The four deaths were reported after the wreckage of the plane owned by an Alaska company was searched with the help of the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office, Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Courtney O’Keefe told The Seattle Times. First responders initially reported Friday that two people had died.

    The FAA has yet to give other details about the plane but according to aviation tracking website Flight Aware, a Cessna 208B with identifier number N2069B departed Renton Airport at around 9:25 a.m. and then appears to have crashed near U.S 2 at around 10:20 a.m. The highway was temporarily closed after the collision.

    The aircraft was N2069B owned by Copper Mountain Aviation of Alaska, according to the FAA website.

    A flight route map shows the plane flew north and completed several circles near Everett before descending 5,100 feet (1,1554 meters) near U.S. 2.

    The names of the people who died haven’t been released. Authorities have said their identities would be released later by the county Medical Examiner’s Office.

    The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

    Drone footage and photos posted by Fox News 13 show the badly burned wreckage in a field next to an irrigation ditch.

    People had tried to fight the fire using handheld extinguishers, but were unsuccessful because of the “large volume of fire,” Snohomish Fire District 4 said Friday. Officials said the plane was difficult to access because of the “terrain, vegetation and irrigation canals.”

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  • Plane hits vehicle on runway, catches fire at Lima’s airport

    Plane hits vehicle on runway, catches fire at Lima’s airport

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    LIMA, Peru — A LATAM Airlines plane taking off from Lima’s international airport struck a firetruck on the runway and caught fire Friday. Authorities said the plane’s passengers and crew were all safe, but two firefighters in the truck were killed.

    Lima Airport Partners, the company that operates Jorge Chávez airport, said in a tweet that operations at the facility had been suspended. There were 102 passengers and six crew members aboard the Airbus A320neo.

    “Our teams are providing the necessary care to all passengers, who are in good condition,” the company said.

    Luis Ponce La Jara, general commander of the fire department, said two firefighters were killed and one was injured when the truck they were in was struck by the plane. Both the plane and the firetruck were in motion when they collided.

    Flight LA2213 was taking off from Lima’s main airport en route to the Peruvian city of Juliaca.

    Videos on social media showed smoke coming from a large plane on the runway.

    According to the fire department, the incident was registered at 3:25 p.m. and four rescue units were mobilized.

    Fire department chief Mario Casaretto told local media that “we do not yet know technically what happened.”

    The Prosecutor’s Office in Callao, where the airport is located, said an investigation into the cause of the accident had been opened.

    Aviation authorities said operations at Jorge Chávez International Airport were suspended until 1 p.m. local time Saturday. Flights would be direct to other airports in the meantime.

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  • MH17 judgment day: Verdicts due against 4 suspects at trial

    MH17 judgment day: Verdicts due against 4 suspects at trial

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    SCHIPHOL, Netherlands — A Dutch court is passing judgment Thursday on three Russians and a Ukrainian charged in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine and the deaths of all 298 passengers and crew on board.

    The verdict comes more than eight years after the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was blown out of the sky on July 17, 2014, amid a conflict between pro-Russia rebels and Ukrainian forces, scattering wreckage and bodies over farmland and fields of sunflowers.

    None of the suspects appeared for the trial that began in March 2020 and if they are convicted, it’s unlikely they will serve any sentence anytime soon. Prosecutors have sought life sentences for all four. Prosecutors and the suspects have two weeks to file an appeal.

    The Hague District Court, sitting at a high-security courtroom at Schiphol Airport, is passing judgment against a backdrop of global geopolitical upheaval caused by Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine in February and the nearly nine-month war it triggered.

    Hundreds of family members of people killed traveled to the court to hear the verdict, bringing them back to the airport their loved ones left on the fateful day MH17 was shot down.

    Dutch prosecutors say the missile launcher came from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, a unit of the Russian armed forces based in the Russian city of Kursk and was driven back there after MH17 was shot down.

    The suspects aren’t accused of firing the missile but of working together to get it to the field where it was fired. They are accused of bringing down the plane and the murder of all those on board.

    The most senior defendant is Igor Girkin, a 51-year-old former colonel in Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB. At the time of the downing, he was defense minister and commander of the armed forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic — the region where the plane was shot down. Girkin reportedly is currently involved in Russia’s war on Ukraine.

    Also on trial are Girkin’s subordinates, Sergey Dubinskiy, Oleg Pulatov, and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian who prosecutors say was commander of a pro-Russia rebel combat unit and took orders directly from Dubinskiy.

    Pulatov is the only one of the suspects who was represented by defense lawyers at the trial. They accused prosecutors of “tunnel vision” in basing their case on the findings of an international investigation into the downing while ignoring other possible causes.

    Pulatov’s defense team also sought to discredit evidence and argued he didn’t get a fair trial.

    In a video recording played in court, Pulatov insisted he was innocent and told judges: “What matters to me is that the truth is revealed. It’s important for me that my country is not blamed for this tragedy.”

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  • Dallas air show victims named; NTSB investigation underway

    Dallas air show victims named; NTSB investigation underway

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    DALLAS — Officials have released the names of the six people killed in a deadly collision between two vintage military aircraft at a Dallas air show.

    The Commemorative Air Force, which put on the show, on Monday identified the victims as: Terry Barker, Craig Hutain, Kevin “K5” Michels, Dan Ragan, Leonard “Len” Root, and Curt Rowe.

    They died Saturday when a World War II-era bomber and a fighter plane collided and crashed in a ball of flames, horrifying spectators who had gathered for the air show, which opened on Veterans’ Day.

    Several videos posted on social media show the fighter plane flying into the bomber.

    Armin Mizani, the mayor of Keller, Texas, said Barker was a retired pilot who lived in Keller, a town of 50,000, where many of the residents know each other.

    “It’s definitely a big loss in our community,” he said. “We’re grieving.”

    Barker was an Army veteran who flew helicopters during his military service. He later worked for American Airlines for 36 years before retiring in 2020, Mizani said.

    Rowe, a member of the Ohio Wing Civil Air Patrol, was a crew chief on the B-17, his brother-in-law Andy Keller told The Associated Press on Sunday. Rowe, of Hilliard, Ohio, did air shows several times a year because he fell in love with WWII aircraft, Keller said.

    The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the collision, including why both aircraft were flying at the same altitude and in the same air space, NTSB member Michael Graham said at a Sunday news conference.

    The crash came three years after the crash of a bomber in Connecticut that killed seven, and amid ongoing concern about the safety of air shows involving older warplanes. The company that owned the planes flying in the Wings Over Dallas show has had other crashes in its more than 60-year history.

    Investigators will examine the wreckage from both aircraft, conduct interviews of crews present at the air show and obtain pilot training and aircraft maintenance records.

    “We’ll look at everything that we can and we’ll let the evidence basically lead us to the appropriate conclusions. At this point, we will not speculate” on the cause, Graham said.

    A preliminary report from the NTSB is expected in four to six weeks, while a final report will take up to 18 months to complete.

    The B-17, a cornerstone of U.S. air power during World War II, is an immense four-engine bomber that was used in daylight raids against Germany. The Kingcobra, a U.S. fighter plane, was used mostly by Soviet forces during the war. Most B-17s were scrapped at the end of World War II and only a handful remain today, largely featured at museums and air shows, according to Boeing.

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  • 6 killed after vintage aircraft collide at Dallas air show

    6 killed after vintage aircraft collide at Dallas air show

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    DALLAS — Two historic military planes collided and crashed to the ground in a ball of flames during a Dallas air show, leaving six people dead, officials said.

    National transportation officials were investigating the cause of Saturday’s collision, which came three years after the crash of a World War II-era bomber in Connecticut that killed seven, and amid ongoing concern about the safety of air shows involving older warplanes.

    Emergency crews raced to the crash scene at the Dallas Executive Airport, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the city’s downtown. News footage from the scene showed crumpled wreckage of the planes in a grassy area inside the airport perimeter.

    The in-air collision during the Wings over Dallas air show claimed six lives, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins tweeted Sunday, citing the county medical examiner. Authorities are continuing to work to identify the victims, he said. It was not clear if there were any injuries or fatalities on the ground. Dallas Fire-Rescue told The Dallas Morning News there were no reports of injuries there.

    Anthony Montoya saw the two planes collide.

    “I just stood there. I was in complete shock and disbelief,” said Montoya, 27, who attended the air show with a friend. “Everybody around was gasping. Everybody was bursting into tears. Everybody was in shock.”

    Officials did not specify how many people were inside each plane, but Hank Coates, president of the company that put on the air show, said one of the planes, a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, typically has a crew of four to five people. The other, a P-63 Kingcobra fighter plane, has a single pilot.

    No paying customers were on the aircraft, said Coates, of Commemorative Air Force, which also owned the planes. The aircraft are flown by highly trained volunteers, often retired pilots, he said.

    The National Transportation Safety Board took control of the crash scene, with local police and fire providing support, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said. The Federal Aviation Administration also was going to investigate, officials said.

    “The videos are heartbreaking,” Johnson said on Twitter.

    The planes collided and crashed about 1:20 p.m., the FAA said in a statement.

    Victoria Yeager, the widow of famed Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager and herself a pilot, was also at the show. She didn’t see the collision, but did see the burning wreckage.

    “It was pulverized,” said Yeager, 64, who lives in Fort Worth.

    “We were just hoping they had all gotten out, but we knew they didn’t,” she said of those on board.

    The B-17, a cornerstone of U.S. air power during World War II, is an immense four-engine bomber used in daylight raids against Germany. The Kingcobra, a U.S. fighter plane, was used mostly by Soviet forces during the war. Most B-17s were scrapped at the end of World War II and only a handful remain today, largely featured at museums and air shows, according to Boeing.

    Several videos posted on social media showed the fighter plane appearing to fly into the bomber, causing them to quickly crash to the ground and setting off a large ball of fire and smoke.

    “It was really horrific to see,” said spectator Aubrey Anne Young, 37, of Leander, Texas. Her children were inside the hangar with their father when it happened. “I’m still trying to make sense of it.”

    A woman next to Young can be heard crying and screaming on a video that Young uploaded to her Facebook page.

    Air show safety — particularly with older military aircraft — has been a concern for years. In 2011, 11 people were killed in Reno, Nevada, when a P-51 Mustang crashed into spectators. In 2019, a bomber crashed in Hartford, Connecticut, killing seven people. The NTSB said then that it had investigated 21 crashes since 1982 involving World War II-era bombers, resulting in 23 deaths.

    Wings Over Dallas bills itself as “America’s Premier World War II Airshow,” according to a website advertising the event. The show was scheduled for Nov. 11-13, Veterans Day weekend, and guests were to see more than 40 World War II-era aircraft. Its Saturday afternoon schedule of flying demonstrations included the “bomber parade” and “fighter escorts” that featured the B-17 and P-63.

    Arthur Alan Wolk is a Philadelphia aviation attorney who flew in air shows for 12 years. After watching the air show video and hearing the maneuvers described as “bombers on parade,” Wolk told The Associated Press on Sunday that the P-63 pilot violated the basic rule of formation flying.

    “He went belly up to the leader,” Wolk said. “That prevents him from gauging distance and position. The risk of collision is very high when you cannot see who you are supposed to be in formation with and that kind of joinup is not permitted.”

    He added, “I am not blaming anyone and to the greatest extent possible, air shows, the pilots and the aircraft that fly in them are safe. Air shows are one of the largest spectator events in America and it is rare that a tragedy like this occurs.”

    Wolk said it takes extensive training and discipline to fly in an air show setting. The air show qualifications of the P-63 pilot are not known.

    ———

    Bleed reported from Little Rock, Arkansas. Bobby Caina Calvan in New York City, Ken Miller in Oklahoma City and Dave Kolpack in Fargo, North Dakota, contributed to this report.

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  • 6 killed after vintage aircraft collide at Dallas air show

    6 killed after vintage aircraft collide at Dallas air show

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    DALLAS — Six people were killed after two historic military planes collided and crashed to the ground Saturday during a Dallas air show, officials said.

    “According to our Dallas County Medical Examiner, there are a total of 6 fatalities from yesterday’s Wings over Dallas air show incident,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins tweeted Sunday. He said authorities are continuing to work to identify the victims.

    The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collided and crashed around 1:20 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The collision occurred during the Commemorative Air Force Wings Over Dallas show.

    Several videos posted on social media showed the fighter plane appearing to fly into the bomber, causing them to quickly crash to the ground and setting off a large ball of fire and smoke.

    Air show safety — particularly with older military aircraft — has been a concern for years. In 2011, 11 people were killed in Reno, Nevada, when a P-51 Mustang crashed into spectators. In 2019, a bomber crashed in Hartford, Connecticut, killing seven people. The NTSB said then that it had investigated 21 accidents since 1982 involving World War II-era bombers, resulting in 23 deaths.

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  • Officials: Six people were killed after two historic military planes collided during a Dallas air show Saturday

    Officials: Six people were killed after two historic military planes collided during a Dallas air show Saturday

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    Officials: Six people were killed after two historic military planes collided during a Dallas air show Saturday

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  • Two aircraft collide, crash during Dallas air show

    Two aircraft collide, crash during Dallas air show

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    DALLAS — Two historic military planes collided and crashed to the ground Saturday during an air show in Dallas, exploding into a ball of flames and sending plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky. It was unclear how many people were on board the aircraft or if anyone on the ground was hurt.

    Leah Block, a spokesperson for Commemorative Air Force, which produced the Veterans Day weekend show and owned the crashed aircraft, told ABC News she believed there were five crew members on the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber and one aboard the P-63 Kingcobra fighter plane. The Houston-based aircraft were not giving rides to paying customers at the time, she said.

    Emergency crews raced to the crash scene at the Dallas Executive Airport, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the city’s downtown. Live TV news footage from the scene showed people setting up orange cones around the crumpled wreckage of the bomber, which was in a grassy area.

    Anthony Montoya saw the two planes collide.

    “I just stood there. I was in complete shock and disbelief,” said Montoya, 27, who attended the air show with a friend. “Everybody around was gasping. Everybody was bursting into tears. Everybody was in shock.”

    Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said the National Transportation Safety Board had taken control of the crash scene with local police and fire providing support.

    “The videos are heartbreaking,” Johnson said on Twitter.

    The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collided and crashed around 1:20 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The collision occurred during the Commemorative Air Force Wings Over Dallas show.

    Victoria Yeager, the widow of famed Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager and herself a pilot, was also at the show. She didn’t see the collision, but did see the burning wreckage.

    “It was pulverized,” said Yeager, 64, who lives in Forth Worth.

    “We were just hoping they had all gotten out, but we knew they didn’t,” she said of those on board.

    The B-17, an immense four-engine bomber, was a cornerstone of U.S. air power during World War II and is one of the most celebrated warplanes in U.S. history. The Kingcobra, a U.S. fighter plane, was used mostly by Soviet forces during the war. Most B-17s were scrapped at the end of World War II and only a handful remain today, largely featured at museums and air shows, according to Boeing.

    Several videos posted on social media showed the fighter plane appearing to fly into the bomber, causing them to quickly crash to the ground and setting off a large ball of fire and smoke.

    “It was really horrific to see,” Aubrey Anne Young, 37, of Leander. Texas, who saw the crash. Her children were inside the hangar with their father when it occurred. “I’m still trying to make sense of it.”

    A woman next to Young can be heard crying and screaming hysterically on a video that Young uploaded to her Facebook page.

    Air show safety – particularly with older military aircraft – has been a concern for years. In 2011, 11 people were killed in Reno, Nevada, when a P-51 Mustang crashed into spectators. In 2019, a bomber crashed in Hartford, Connecticut, killing seven people. The NTSB said then that it had investigated 21 accidents since 1982 involving World War II-era bombers, resulting in 23 deaths.

    Wings Over Dallas bills itself as “America’s Premier World War II Airshow,” according to a website advertising the event. The show was scheduled for Nov. 11-13, Veterans Day weekend, and guests were to see more than 40 World War II-era aircrafts. Its Saturday afternoon schedule included flying demonstrations including a “bomber parade” and “fighter escorts” featured the B-17 and P-63.

    Videos of previous Wings Over Dallas events depict vintage warplanes flying low, sometimes in close formation, on simulated strafing or bombing runs. The videos also show the planes performing aerobatic stunts.

    The FAA was also launching an investigation, officials said.

    ———

    Bleed reported from Little Rock, Arkansas

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  • Federal Aviation Administration says two aircraft have collided at air show in Dallas; condition of pilots unknown

    Federal Aviation Administration says two aircraft have collided at air show in Dallas; condition of pilots unknown

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    Federal Aviation Administration says two aircraft have collided at air show in Dallas; condition of pilots unknown

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  • Tanzania: Small passenger plane crashes into Lake Victoria

    Tanzania: Small passenger plane crashes into Lake Victoria

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    NAIROBI, Kenya — A small passenger plane crashed Sunday morning into Lake Victoria on approach to an airport in Tanzania.

    It was not immediately clear how many people were on board the plane as it headed for Bukoba Airport. Tanzanian airline company Precision Air said the flight was coming from the coastal city of Dar es Salaam.

    News reports showed photos of the plane mostly submerged in the lake.

    “We have managed to save quite a number of people,” Kagera province police commander William Mwampaghale told journalists.

    “When the aircraft was about 100 meters (328 feet) midair, it encountered problems and bad weather. It was raining and the plane plunged into the water. Everything is under control,” he said.

    Mwampaghale said rescue efforts continued.

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  • FAA mandates seaplane inspections after Puget Sound crash

    FAA mandates seaplane inspections after Puget Sound crash

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    SEATTLE — Federal regulators on Wednesday ordered seaplanes like one that went down in Washington’s Puget Sound in September be inspected for a flaw that likely caused the deadly crash.

    The Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness directive requires that operators of all the DHC-3 Otter seaplanes in the United States — 63 of about 160 operating worldwide — examine the stabilizer to confirm the condition of an actuator piece, The Seattle Times reported. That piece was missing from the Friday Harbor Seaplanes aircraft that crashed Sept. 4 into the waters near Whidbey Island, killing 10 people, newspaper reported.

    Operators must confirm that the stabilizer actuator lock ring is correctly installed and report back to the FAA by Dec. 19, according to the directive. The order does not ground the aircraft.

    Kenmore Air, the largest Otter operator on Puget Sound, has said its aircraft have passed inspection.

    On Oct. 24, the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, urged operators to ground all those particular planes until the part is inspected, noting it would be up to the FAA to issue a grounding order. Last week, the NTSB officially called for the FAA to require inspection of the planes.

    “We’re concerned that another plane could crash as a result of something similar,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at the time.

    In an investigative update, the NTSB identified a lock missing from the actuator of the horizontal tail — also known as a stabilizer — which controls the pitch of the plane.

    After crews recovered about 85% of the plane wreckage in September, investigators found the upper portion of the actuator was attached to the horizontal stabilizer, while the lower part was “attached to its mount in the fuselage” but disconnected.

    While the NTSB has not officially said the actuator separation caused the crash, Homendy said the failure of the actuator could have caused the plane to plummet. Additional crashes could happen if the lock pin is missing or improperly installed.

    An FAA spokesperson told The Seattle Times on Wednesday that the directive was issued after the manufacturer, Viking Air Limited, issued a service bulletin.

    A problem with pitch control would be consistent with the “nose dive” reported by people who saw the plane hit Puget Sound.

    Witnesses helped officials identify the crash site, search for survivors and locate the remains of one passenger.

    It took the NTSB and U.S. Navy crews more than a week and several types of sonar to find what remained of the plane because of the depth and current of the channel where the aircraft hit. Remains of seven of the 10 people aboard have been located.

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  • FAA mandates seaplane inspections after Puget Sound crash

    FAA mandates seaplane inspections after Puget Sound crash

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    SEATTLE — Federal regulators on Wednesday ordered seaplanes like one that went down in Washington’s Puget Sound in September be inspected for a flaw that likely caused the deadly crash.

    The Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness directive requires that operators of all the DHC-3 Otter seaplanes in the United States — 63 of about 160 operating worldwide — examine the stabilizer to confirm the condition of an actuator piece, The Seattle Times reported. That piece was missing from the Friday Harbor Seaplanes aircraft that crashed Sept. 4 into the waters near Whidbey Island, killing 10 people, newspaper reported.

    Operators must confirm that the stabilizer actuator lock ring is correctly installed and report back to the FAA by Dec. 19, according to the directive. The order does not ground the aircraft.

    Kenmore Air, the largest Otter operator on Puget Sound, has said its aircraft have passed inspection.

    On Oct. 24, the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, urged operators to ground all those particular planes until the part is inspected, noting it would be up to the FAA to issue a grounding order. Last week, the NTSB officially called for the FAA to require inspection of the planes.

    “We’re concerned that another plane could crash as a result of something similar,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at the time.

    In an investigative update, the NTSB identified a lock missing from the actuator of the horizontal tail — also known as a stabilizer — which controls the pitch of the plane.

    After crews recovered about 85% of the plane wreckage in September, investigators found the upper portion of the actuator was attached to the horizontal stabilizer, while the lower part was “attached to its mount in the fuselage” but disconnected.

    While the NTSB has not officially said the actuator separation caused the crash, Homendy said the failure of the actuator could have caused the plane to plummet. Additional crashes could happen if the lock pin is missing or improperly installed.

    An FAA spokesperson told The Seattle Times on Wednesday that the directive was issued after the manufacturer, Viking Air Limited, issued a service bulletin.

    A problem with pitch control would be consistent with the “nose dive” reported by people who saw the plane hit Puget Sound.

    Witnesses helped officials identify the crash site, search for survivors and locate the remains of one passenger.

    It took the NTSB and U.S. Navy crews more than a week and several types of sonar to find what remained of the plane because of the depth and current of the channel where the aircraft hit. Remains of seven of the 10 people aboard have been located.

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  • Today in History: October 31, Indira Gandhi assassinated

    Today in History: October 31, Indira Gandhi assassinated

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    Today in History

    Today is Monday, Oct. 31, the 304th day of 2022. There are 61 days left in the year. This is Halloween.

    Today’s Highlight in History:

    On Oct. 31, 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh (sihk) security guards.

    On this date:

    In 1864, Nevada became the 36th state as President Abraham Lincoln signed a proclamation.

    In 1941, work was completed on the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, begun in 1927.

    In 1961, the body of Josef Stalin was removed from Lenin’s Tomb as part of the Soviet Union’s “de-Stalinization” drive.

    In 1964, Theodore C. Freeman, 34, became the first member of NASA’s astronaut corps to die when his T-38 jet crashed while approaching Ellington Air Force Base in Houston.

    In 1967, Nguyen Van Thieu (nwen van too) took the oath of office as the first president of South Vietnam’s second republic.

    In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered a halt to all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, saying he hoped for fruitful peace negotiations.

    In 1992, Pope John Paul II formally proclaimed that the Roman Catholic Church had erred in condemning the astronomer Galileo for holding that the Earth was not the center of the universe.

    In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990, bound from New York to Cairo, crashed off the Massachusetts coast, killing all 217 people aboard.

    In 2005, President George W. Bush nominated Judge Samuel Alito (ah-LEE’-toh) to the Supreme Court. Civil rights icon Rosa Parks was honored during a memorial service in Washington, D.C.

    In 2015, a Russian passenger airliner crashed in a remote part of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula 23 minutes after taking off from a popular Red Sea resort, killing all 224 people on board.

    In 2019, President Donald Trump announced that he would be making Palm Beach, Florida, his permanent residence after leaving the White House rather than returning to Trump Tower in New York.

    In 2020, actor Sean Connery, who rose to international stardom as the suave secret agent James Bond and then carved out an Oscar-winning career in other rugged roles, died at his home in the Bahamas at the age of 90.

    Ten years ago: President Barack Obama joined New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for a tour of damage along the Jersey coast from Superstorm Sandy; Wall Street was back in business after a two-day shutdown caused by the storm. (Stocks finished mixed).

    Five years ago: Eight people were killed when a man drove a truck along a bike path in New York City in an attack that authorities immediately labeled terrorism; the driver, identified by authorities as Uzbek immigrant Sayfullo Saipov, was shot and wounded by police. Netflix said it was suspending production on “House of Cards” following sexual harassment allegations against its star, Kevin Spacey. (Spacey would later be fired from the show, and production resumed without him.)

    One year ago: Southwest Airlines said it was investigating after a pilot greeted passengers over the plane’s public address system using a phrase that had become a stand-in for insulting President Joe Biden. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said she had contracted COVID-19 and was experiencing mild symptoms. American Airlines canceled hundreds of flights for a third straight day as it struggled with staffing shortages.

    Today’s Birthdays: Actor Lee Grant is 97. Former CBS anchorman Dan Rather is 91. Folk singer Tom Paxton is 85. Actor Ron Rifkin is 84. Actor Sally Kirkland is 81. Actor Brian Doyle-Murray is 77. Actor Stephen Rea is 76. Olympic gold medal long-distance runner Frank Shorter is 75. Actor Deidre Hall is 75. TV show host Jane Pauley is 72. Actor Brian Stokes Mitchell is 65. Movie director Peter Jackson is 61. Rock musician Larry Mullen is 61. Actor Dermot Mulroney is 59. Rock musician Mikkey Dee is 59. Rock singer-musician Johnny Marr is 59. Actor Rob Schneider is 59. Country singer Darryl Worley is 58. Actor-comedian Mike O’Malley is 57. Rap musician Adrock is 56. Rap performer Vanilla Ice (aka Rob Van Winkle) is 55. Rock musician Rogers Stevens (Blind Melon) is 53. Rock singer Linn Berggren (Ace of Base) is 52. Reality TV host Troy Hartman is 51. Gospel singer Smokie Norful is 49. Actor Piper Perabo (PEER’-uh-boh) is 46. Actor Brian Hallisay is 44. Actor Samaire (SAH’-mee-rah) Armstrong is 42. Actor Eddie Kaye Thomas is 42. Rock musician Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance) is 41. Actor Justin Chatwin is 40. Actor Scott Clifton is 38. Actor Vanessa Marano is 30. Actor Holly Taylor is 25. Actor Danielle Rose Russell is 23. Actor-singer Willow Smith is 22.

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