... and it is not looking good for the Airboss!
Here are Juan Browne (Blancolirio) and Scott Purdue (Flywire) doing the analysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc4FP4VZOd8
Video is 50 minutes. Any true aviation enthusiast will want to watch the whole thing, but here is a very brief summary for those who don't
- The crossover maneuver was not briefed, and was brought up
"on the fly". This is an absolute no-no.
- The pattern had the bombers approaching on the 1000 ft line (as in 1000ft from the crowd) with the fighters having to cross that line to get to their 500ft line. To this I say WTAF!!
- The Airboss left deconfliction up to the pilots. Again, WTAF!
- The Airboss was very badly positioned to see the relative altitudes and distances.
- The pilot of the P-63 only had a five second window before impact in which he could have seen the B-17, and that would have been out of his side window, while he was looking through the front window at the P-51 ahead of him to line-up on the 500ft line.
- There were a couple of previous incidents at an earlier airshow involving the this Airboss and his father, the previous Airboss for this show, which were not briefed, and which involved conflicting flight paths. (Scott Purdue explains here
https://youtu.be/Nc4FP4VZOd8?t=834 )
- The Airboss had no experience in formation flying and no certification in control of formation flying. He uses non-standard, confusing and conflicting language to direct the display.