I have flown in air shows and been through a bevy of briefings. The fighters were in a simple tail chase left hand orbit pattern. The "parade pass" has a hard deck and you just chase the guy in front of you. It is a bit harder with disparate aircraft, but possible if you recognize this and just give a bit longer before you pull after the pass to set up more space on the downwind. The bombers were in a straight parade and they just tail chase and lumber through. Separation is both horizontal and vertical usually, and as others have mentioned here, the runway is the divider that is simplest to use. Horizontal spacing is briefed and set up so orbits don't cross thru the others altitudes. The P-63 wasn't joining up on the B-17. He was supposed to chase the Mustang in front of him around the pattern while the bombers flew a line astern pass down the flight line.
I have looked at the footage and the bombers were coming in from airshow left and a bit angled in to the runway as the B-17 had to bank left to begin his parade pass. I think this puts him almost directly over the runway and "cuts the corner" and doesn't leave any room for the fighters to leak out of their area. The P-63 is in a tail chase with a P-51 and it looks like he is more than eating him up. The only place the -63 has to go to get spacing is to widen out and it looks like he is doing that when he impacts the -17. His eyes would be locked on the Mustang especially if he was eating him up and trying to make some space. I would agree he never saw the -17 coming.
Who is to blame if the above is correct? The -63 has the responsibility to space off the guy in front of him and managing his speed and spacing. We have all chased someone on final and cursed at them for slowing, but ultimately we are responsible for the spacing. If he hadn't eaten up the guy in front of him he wouldn't have widened out. I haven't seen footage of the fighters making earlier passes, but he may have been using the widening out on the parade pass to help manage spacing for a couple of circuits. Regardless, one should space somewhere besides the parade pass and he should not have been pulling out of his dive to the flightline to make his pass so close to the Mustang.
The -17 also was possibly out of position given the late left turn to line up to the air show line and the crash happening almost directly over the runway which was likely the divider for the two groups. This is a bit harder to discern, but given the late turn I think they were supposed to be lined up farther from airshow center and may have entered the "buffer" area over the runway.
Last is the Air Boss and the briefing and planning of the flight. The setup of the bomber passes crossing through the fighter altitudes is questionable. There were a lot of moving parts here with each fighter doing his thing. I don't like this many airplanes freelancing at the same time, let alone having the bombers pass through the vertical profile of the fighters.
My heart goes out to those that perished. I have flown a lot of air shows and sadly crashes like this happen. We need to brief like we plan and fly like we brief. Lesson can and should be learned from this.
Last edited by Ugly Jet Captain; 14th Nov 2022 at 05:25.