The public is getting a clearer picture of what may have happened at the 2022 Wings of Over Dallas Airshow.
The fatal mid-air collision claimed the lives of six people. On Monday, the NTSB released a nearly 2,000-page document with insight into where its investigation stands.
The airshow ended tragically with two World War II-era aircraft colliding as spectators watched from the ground.
Almost immediately, the National Transportation Safety Board launched an investigation into the fatal crash.
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Arturo Gonzalez is a Texas attorney with decades of experience in aviation crashes.
“If I attend the airshow, have there been sufficient measures taken to ensure my safety if I go to this airshow?” he asked. “And I think the NTSB has taken sufficient steps to be transparent.”
Gonzalez said this level of transparency from the NTSB is to be expected as they sift through all the variables and work to answer critical questions.
“What were their orders? what were their marching orders?” Gonzalez asked. “What was their formation? Where were they supposed to be at a particular point in time? What was their altitude?”
The NTSB documents are divided into categories, including operational factors, human performance, and preshow briefings. Still, the NTSB clearly states that this is not the final report and does not provide probable cause.
“You need to sit down and look at this information, look at the data, review the transcripts, review the photographs,” Gonzalez said. “Listen to the recordings and piece together everything that gives you a footprint of what was happening at that point in time.”
The report does reveal images of the moments just before the collision, a damaged GPS device, and aerial photos of the damage. It also says both airplanes were last inspected in March of the same year. There’s also evidence of a log for participants who signed off, saying they’d received a pre-show safety briefing prior to the event.
The documents also include transcripts of recordings, interviews, and other investigative material.
It remains to be seen whether the NTSB’s final report will lead to sweeping changes in airshow practices. Gonzalez said it’s not likely.
“It happens on a case-by-case or step-by-step basis,” he said. “But for them to do a wholesale change on airshow protocol, I just don’t see it happening in the very near future.”
Gonzalez said the final report could take another six months to a year before the public has concrete answers for what happened that day.
Last year, the Commemorative Air Force decided against an airshow and instead opted for an aviation festival. We were told organizers plan to bring back this airshow this year.
The NTSB Public Docket can be found on NTSB's website.
