Six pilots of the B-17 Flying Fortress and P-63 Kingcobra flight crews
November 15, 2022
Six people are dead after two World War II-ear military planes collided and crashed during an air show Saturday afternoon, killing all on board.
The crash occurred at around 1:20 p.m., those killed in the crash were Terry Barker and Leonard “Len” Root. They were flying the B-17 Flying Fortress. 30-year plus veteran of the Civil Air Patrol’s Ohio Wing, Maj. Curtis J. Rowe was also killed in the collision.
Craig Hutain was a United Airlines pilot and executive officer with Tora! Tora! Tora! Airshows. Kevin “K5” Michels and Dan Ragan and Curt Rowe were named as the other victims.
No spectators or others on the ground were reported injured. Neither aircraft was equipped with a flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder. A preliminary accident report is expected in four to six weeks, but a full report on the investigation may take up to 18 months. The FFA originally began the investigation on Saturday but the National Transportation Safety Board took over the investigation once on the scene.
The NTSB has asked anyone with photos or videos of the incident to share them with them“They’ll be very critical to analyze the collision and also tie that in with the aircraft control recordings to determine why the two aircraft collided and to determine, basically, the how and why this accident happened and then eventually, hopefully, maybe make some safety recommendations to prevent it from happening in the future,” said Michael Graham of the NTSB.
Photos – Submitted