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Six dead in mid-air collision at Texas WWII show: authorities

"According to our Dallas County Medical Examiner, there are a total of 6 fatalities from yesterday's Wings over Dallas air show incident," Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Sunday on Twitter.

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Six dead in mid-air collision at Texas WWII show: authorities

Six people were killed when a pair of World-War-II-era planes collided in mid-air at a show in Dallas and crashed to the ground in a ball of fire, authorities said Sunday.

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Six dead in mid-air collision at Texas WWII show: authorities

"According to our Dallas County Medical Examiner, there are a total of 6 fatalities from yesterday's Wings over Dallas air show incident," Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Sunday on Twitter.

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Six dead in mid-air collision at Texas WWII show: authorities

The tragedy, under investigation by federal agencies, involved a single-pilot Bell P-63 Kingcobra crashing into a larger Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.

"Authorities will continue working today on the investigation & identification of the deceased," said Judge Clay Jenkins, the chief elected official in the Texas county. "Please pray for their families and all involved."

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Six dead in mid-air collision at Texas WWII show: authorities

The crash involved World War Two-era planes - a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra fighter - that were flying at the Wings Over Dallas Airshow at Dallas Executive Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement.

Hank Coates, the president and CEO of the Commemorative Air Force, a group dedicated to the preservation of World War Two combat aircraft, said the B-17 normally has a crew of four to five people.
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Six dead in mid-air collision at Texas WWII show: authorities

The P-63 is manned by a single pilot, Coates added, but he would not say how many people were aboard the aircraft at the time of the crash.

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Six dead in mid-air collision at Texas WWII show: authorities

Video clips posted on social media showed the two aircraft colliding and crashing on the ground, engulfed by flames. Scenes from live aerial video showed debris from the aircrafts scattered on a patch of scorched grass.

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Six dead in mid-air collision at Texas WWII show: authorities

Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) launched investigations.