A National Transportation Safety Board official says neither of the two vintage military aircraft that collided at a Dallas air show had flight data or cockpit voice recordings but there are other electronics that could possibly help shed light on what happened.
“Neither aircraft was equipped with a flight data recorder or a cockpit voice recorder, often known as the black boxes. However, we recovered this morning via an electronic flight display from the B-17 and a GPS navigational unit from the P-63,” said NTSB member Michael Graham at a Monday afternoon news conference. “The units from both aircraft were damaged during the accident, accident. They’re both being sent to the NTSB’s recorder lab in Washington, D.C. to determine whether data and relevant information can be recovered from both units.”
“Data that these types of units may have ... would be things like GPS location, possible altitudes of the aircraft, and the air speeds of the aircraft,” Graham said during a news conference.
He said it’s also possible the NTSB would consider recommending vintage aircraft like those involved in Saturday’s crash, have flight data recorders on board.
Also Monday, the Commemorative Air Force, which put on the show, 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 that opened on Veterans’ Day.
