Knowing my background as a now somewhat retired accident investigator, I've gotten the usual "what happened" questions & recognize some friends and colleague investigators in the on-scene photos. Instead of one by one answers, here are a few observations rom what are already a BUNCH of videos and radio recordings like below:
Here we go round and round again with airshow accidents involving warbirds in a needless loss of life we repeat every year. In summary, the rallying cry of the warbird community will be that these are privately owned airplanes on airshow waivers so there's already enough restrictions. However, after the NTSB has essentially been blown off following Illinois, Oshkosh, Hartford, and so many other show accidents, the visibility of this one may lead to serious change.
Mechanical failure?
The NTSB will look into it but for the exact timing it would be very very unlikely. The on-scene investigation will look into the airplane systems for things like bearing binding, while the lab will do an aero exam, taking the frame by frame movements and backing those into an aerodynamic program which extrapolates back to pilot control inputs, versus what the airplane actually was doing.
Pilot incapacitation or G loss of consciousness (GLOC)?
The investigation will be going through the audio in fine detail to examine for potential GLOC and yes, it's possible. However, he had been talking to ground and just before that moment they had told him to take the lead. The above mentioned aero exam will also imply whether the pilot was in control. Just as an observation, a pilot pulling G and browning out tends to relax on the stick, like happened this year at Reno. That's not apparent in the Dallas videos online.
Management?
With respect to paying/commercial operations at these general aviation events, the NTSB came to some conclusions and safety recommendations following the 2019 Hartford B-17 "9-0-9" Collings Foundation crash. While technically it pointed to maintenance and the pilot proficiency, the Board found the entire scheme of things was too loose and unsafe to be carrying people for money. These warbirds were dangerous when built to perform specific military missions and were NEVER meant to be safe enough to continue on for another 70 years with their 1940s versions of military safety standards which didn't even meet the commercial standards back then.
https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/GenerateNewestReport/100356/pdf
The NTSB then went farther after a "doors off" helicopter accident resulted in drowning photographers in New York and they realized there'd been 8 recent fatal accidents killing 45 people in Part 91 commercial ops:
https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/ne...g-slams-loopholes-in-part-91-revenue-flights/
https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/aar2103.pdf
(See the recommendations starting on page viii)
Bottom line is that the NTSB found that although the FAA said they were requiring a level of standard equivalent to a safety management system (SMS), the FAA was not actually executing or following through. Yes, the Commemorative Air Force CEO posted photos to show how before the Dallas accident there were pre-flight briefings, but look closer at how large and one-sided they were. As any aviation professional can tell you, SMS requires continuous participation by all involved, not lectures. This goes a lot farther than the director of airshow ops at a single show. My guess is that after this accident no FAA inspector in his right mind will be willing to sign airshow waivers without pretty stringent standards providing solid path separation, altitude separation, less close formations, and above all - proof that an actual SMS program is being used.
We'll need to wait and see what else the NTSB comes out with. In the meantime there will be ALL sorts of armchair experts (example: Blancolirio) who are NOT part of the investigation so be careful of the speculative crap about to flood us.
Bob / CW
Planes collide mid-air at Dallas air show
WARNING GRAPHIC VIDEO: Video from witnesses obtained by FOX 4 shows two planes colliding in the air during the Wings Over Dallas WWII Airshow at the Dallas E...
www.youtube.com
Here we go round and round again with airshow accidents involving warbirds in a needless loss of life we repeat every year. In summary, the rallying cry of the warbird community will be that these are privately owned airplanes on airshow waivers so there's already enough restrictions. However, after the NTSB has essentially been blown off following Illinois, Oshkosh, Hartford, and so many other show accidents, the visibility of this one may lead to serious change.
Mechanical failure?
The NTSB will look into it but for the exact timing it would be very very unlikely. The on-scene investigation will look into the airplane systems for things like bearing binding, while the lab will do an aero exam, taking the frame by frame movements and backing those into an aerodynamic program which extrapolates back to pilot control inputs, versus what the airplane actually was doing.
Pilot incapacitation or G loss of consciousness (GLOC)?
The investigation will be going through the audio in fine detail to examine for potential GLOC and yes, it's possible. However, he had been talking to ground and just before that moment they had told him to take the lead. The above mentioned aero exam will also imply whether the pilot was in control. Just as an observation, a pilot pulling G and browning out tends to relax on the stick, like happened this year at Reno. That's not apparent in the Dallas videos online.
Management?
With respect to paying/commercial operations at these general aviation events, the NTSB came to some conclusions and safety recommendations following the 2019 Hartford B-17 "9-0-9" Collings Foundation crash. While technically it pointed to maintenance and the pilot proficiency, the Board found the entire scheme of things was too loose and unsafe to be carrying people for money. These warbirds were dangerous when built to perform specific military missions and were NEVER meant to be safe enough to continue on for another 70 years with their 1940s versions of military safety standards which didn't even meet the commercial standards back then.
https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/GenerateNewestReport/100356/pdf
The NTSB then went farther after a "doors off" helicopter accident resulted in drowning photographers in New York and they realized there'd been 8 recent fatal accidents killing 45 people in Part 91 commercial ops:
https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/ne...g-slams-loopholes-in-part-91-revenue-flights/
https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/aar2103.pdf
(See the recommendations starting on page viii)
Bottom line is that the NTSB found that although the FAA said they were requiring a level of standard equivalent to a safety management system (SMS), the FAA was not actually executing or following through. Yes, the Commemorative Air Force CEO posted photos to show how before the Dallas accident there were pre-flight briefings, but look closer at how large and one-sided they were. As any aviation professional can tell you, SMS requires continuous participation by all involved, not lectures. This goes a lot farther than the director of airshow ops at a single show. My guess is that after this accident no FAA inspector in his right mind will be willing to sign airshow waivers without pretty stringent standards providing solid path separation, altitude separation, less close formations, and above all - proof that an actual SMS program is being used.
We'll need to wait and see what else the NTSB comes out with. In the meantime there will be ALL sorts of armchair experts (example: Blancolirio) who are NOT part of the investigation so be careful of the speculative crap about to flood us.
Bob / CW