The aircraft crashed to the ground in a fireball (Picture: AP)
Six people are feared to have been killed after two World War II-era planes collided in mid-air at a commemorative airshow in Dallas.
The crash was captured by horrified onlookers filming the display on their phones.
Women and children can be heard screaming in the background of some of the clips as a Bell P-63 Kingcobra fighter plane appears to smash into a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber.
Anthony Montoya, 27, who attended the show with a friend, said: ‘I just stood there. I was in complete shock and disbelief. Everybody around was gasping. Everybody was bursting into tears. Everybody was in shock.’
Emergency crews raced to the crash scene at the Dallas Executive Airport, about 10 miles 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.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson wrote on Twitter: ‘The videos are heartbreaking.’
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collided at around 1.20pm during the Commemorative Air Force Wings Over Dallas show.
The B-17, an immense four-engine bomber, was a cornerstone of US air power during World War II. The Kingcobra, a U.S. fighter plane, was used mostly by Soviet forces during the war.
ABC News producer Jeffrey Cook said six people, all crew members, are feared to have been killed.
Most B-17s were scrapped at the end of the conflict and only a handful remain today, largely featured at museums and air shows, according to Boeing.
Horrifying footage shows one of the planes appearing to fly into another (Picture: AP)
Debris from the two planes (Picture: AP)
Several videos posted on Twitter 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. She added: ‘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.
Emergency responders at the scene (Picture: AP)
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.
There has been no official word on the number of casualties (Picture: AP)
Wings Over Dallas bills itself as ‘America’s Premier World War II Airshow’ (Picture: AP)
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 November 11 to 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.
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The crash was captured by horrified onlookers filming the display on their phones.
