Drone may have caused B-17 and P-63 collision at Wings Over Dallas

[The Droning Company]

If this turns out to be the case it's not going to be good for the droning industry.

Drone May Have Caused B-17 and P-63 Collision at Wings Over Dallas

 

[BigAl07]

Man if that is proven as fact, we are not going to like the repercussions in our industry. I absolutely hope it's never proven as fact and we see some other reason for this horrible incident.

 

[The Droning Company]

Man if that is proven as fact, we are not going to like the repercussions in our industry. I absolutely hope it's never proven as fact and we see some other reason for this horrible incident.

It's possible that it was a bird strike and not a drone but apparently there were drones spotted in the area. We'll have to wait for the full investigation.

 

[SmilingOgre]

That was terrible. Obviously I would hope a drone wasn’t involved. It’s hard for me to understand how a two pound drone could bring down a war bird. I have no idea what all would be involved.

 

[BigAl07]

That was terrible. Obviously I would hope a drone wasn’t involved. It’s hard for me to understand how a two pound drone could bring down a war bird. I have no idea what all would be involved.

I doubt a 2lb drone would bring down a warbird but other things were at play. There's a lot more than can go wrong besides just taking down the aircraft . . .

• Aircraft Flying very LOW
• Aircraft flying very FAST
• Many aircraft flying in very close proximity
• Very small margins for any type of error

All it would take would be for a pilot to take his eyes off the aircraft he's following, have an evasive maneuver and you could see a Catastrophic incident.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

but apparently there were drones spotted in the area

Before your post above, I was thinking more likely a bird strike if there was any sort of airborne influence . . . but even that is a fairly remote kind of chance of bringing down an aircraft, maybe slightly less than a drone hitting a windscreen perhaps.

People flying drones on the day should be finding it hard to live with their actions, even if they were not flying at the time, and even if it if found not to be a drone strike as the crash cause.
Seeing others flying their drones in the area might have made some think it was ok.

I hadn't seen the actual crash footage, just the terrible news edited version, but your link above had it, and it doesn't look good at all.

If they find any actual EVIDENCE of drone parts . . . AND THEY WOULD FIND THEM IF THEY LOOKED IN THE LOCATION, then yeah, it's bad bad bad for drone users.
Not as bad as for the aircrews in the accident of course, rest their souls.

Any sort of drone involvement must be proven, before people start the witch hunt.

edit typo

 

[SmilingOgre]

I doubt a 2lb drone would bring down a warbird but other things were at play. There's a lot more than can go wrong besides just taking down the aircraft . . .

• Aircraft Flying very LOW
• Aircraft flying very FAST
• Many aircraft flying in very close proximity
• Very small margins for any type of error

All it would take would be for a pilot to take his eyes off the aircraft he's following, have an evasive maneuver and you could see a Catastrophic incident.

Just did a little research and testing shows these drones we fly can do serious damage to a plane in certain circumstances. I had no idea. Also, the faa allows for flight under 500ft in very sparsely populated areas and over water for maned aircraft. I have an even greater respect from reading this. Quite unsettling.

 

[MA2 317]

Any sort of drone involvement must be proven, before people start the witch hunt.

Agreed.

 

[rcanboy27]

I am not going to comment out of respect but take a look of this video folks.

 

[mavictk]

I would have thought any airshow would have an Aeroscope involved.

 

[SmilingOgre]

Whatever happened, it needs to be fixed. I’ll throw my drone in the trash if I don’t think reasonable safeguards are in place. I will not take the chance of killing somebody to play with my toy.

 

[dirkclod]

RID

 

[Ty Pilot]

From the article there are some incorrect statements. . . . .

"Now, more footage from Twitter seems to show that a small object alleged to be a drone appears in the path of the P-63. As the P-63 immediately stalls, instantly changes course, and goes into a dive, some experts believe there was a collision between the object and the vintage fighter plane."

At no time during the moments prior to the impact; did the P63. . .

1] experience a stall.
2] instantly change course
3] go into a dive
4] (or as suggested by the linked video in the article) - try to restart the engine because: the engine never stopped

When I first saw the videos of the crash, my instant reaction was that the pilot of the P-63 never saw the B-17. The turn into final over the flight line would have concealed the bomber below the nose of the P63. In addition as a pilot going through the base to final turn, he would have been focusing well ahead of the impact point thus, not looking into the area where the B17 he was over-taking, would appear

Below is a video put out by Air Safety Institute with commentary by ASI Senior Vice President, Richard McSpadden, CFII, MEI, SES, MES, and former Commander/Flight Leader for the USAF Thunderbirds - a guy that can speak with much authority on Air Show operations, safety and routines. He gives his early analysis on the crash.

 

[SkyeHigh]

It looks like a lack of situational awareness by the P-63 pilot. The pilot is flying wing up, which would put the B-17 beneath him and out of sight. Not saying that there was a pre-cursor to this of course.

Terrible tragedy.

Just noticed Ty beat me to it.

If this turns out to be pilot error due to lack of situational or spatial awareness then maybe it would be a lesson to those flying BVLOS that believe they have even the remotest sense of awareness around their aircraft.

 

[Starz]

At no time during the moments prior to the impact; did the P63. . .

1] experience a stall.
2] instantly change course
3] go into a dive
4] (or as suggested by the linked video in the article) - try to restart the engine because: the engine never stopped

I would agree with the above and add that the small dark spot seems to be in two different locations in a very small increment of time. Without physical evidence to confirm this idea, I will lean towards calling this media hype that has no place alongside such a tragic incident.

 

[BigAl07]

Here's an excellent breakdown along with some "intelligent" assumptions.

 

[rcanboy27]

Here are my two cents, just the fact that there are reports of drones flying near, is very sickening. That is why I support RID in some sense. The chances of Karen Know about RID are very slim. Just like I said before, how many men in here know about hair products? Probably not too many, because we are not hairstylists. I keep saying RID is overrated.

 

[shb]

I doubt drones would be allowed to fly around an airshow.

 

[The Droning Company]

Just did a little research and testing shows these drones we fly can do serious damage to a plane in certain circumstances. I had no idea. Also, the faa allows for flight under 500ft in very sparsely populated areas and over water for maned aircraft. I have an even greater respect from reading this. Quite unsettling.

Very true. I think that we have to wait for the NTSB and the FAA to complete their investigations but it seems to me that it wasn't a bird. If it was you'd see blood and feathers and I'm pretty sure that the investigators would have evidence of that by now. The object seemed to be ascending but these are old planes, it's possible that a part fell off the lead aircraft and got tossed around in the backwash.

 

[Crow Horse]

I agree that we must wait for the investigation conclusions. The video struck me as being odd and something was "off". Just to satisfy my curiosity I enlarged the object in question and it appears to have a longer vertical profile than horizontal. I make no pretense of being an expert but if this accurately represents the object in question, it doesn't look like a drone to me.