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Dallas air show victims named; NTSB investigation underway By AP Nov 15, 2022 06:00 AM A A In this photo provided by Larry Petterborg, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collide in the midair during an airshow at Dallas Executive Airport in Dallas, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022. (Larry Petterborg via AP) DALLAS (AP) — Officials on Monday identified the six men killed in a deadly collision between two vintage military aircraft at a Dallas air show, all of whom were experienced aviators with years of flight training. 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. Several videos posted on social media show the fighter plane flying into the bomber. All of the men were volunteers, but each had gone through a strict process of logging hours and training flights and were vetted carefully, Hank Coates, the CEO of Commemorative Air Force said at a weekend news conference. “This is not their first rodeo," Coates said. "These guys are very well versed. Many of them are airline pilots, retired airline pilots, retired military pilots like myself. “These are very well-trained folks who have been doing this for a long time." Officials have not publicly identified which of the victims was piloting the aircrafts. Hutain, of Montgomery, Texas, has been a commercial airline pilot since 1985. He started flying at the age of 10 and had logged more than 34,500 flight hours, according to his LinkedIn page. In a recent interview with Vintage Aviation News posted on YouTube, Hutain described aviation as a “lifelong obsession" passed down from his father, a bomber pilot in World War II. He described having to use pillows to boost him up in the seat of the first airplane he learned to fly. “It's near and dear to my heart," Hutain said. “I've always been a pilot." Armin Mizani, the mayor of Keller, Texas, said Barker was a retired pilot who lived in Keller, a town of 50,000, where many of the residents know each other. “It’s definitely a big loss in our community,” he said. “We’re grieving.” Barker was an Army veteran who flew helicopters during his military service. He later worked for American Airlines for 36 years before retiring in 2020, Mizani said.