CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Despite accidents such as the mid-air collision that took place in Dallas on Saturday, there is no reason for crowds to fear accidents during air shows, said the man responsible for producing the Wings Over South Texas Air Show for the past several years.
David Schultz Air Shows has been producing Wings Over South Texas and other shows in the Coastal Bend for several years, and is producing next year's air show in conjunction with Buc Days.
Schultz reviewed video of the collision that claimed six lives with 3NEWS.
He said the planes in the Dallas air show were flying straight and level flights. There was some banking, like you would see in a NASCAR race, he said, but the crash ultimately came down to the fact that the pilots were flying at the same altitude.
"I mean, there's an imminent impact getting ready to happen," he said.
The Corpus Christi flight demonstrations are different than the the vintage-only aircraft that performed in Dallas, though, he said.
"We have F-16 demos. We have the Blue Angels. We have other types of fighter aircraft -- Coast Guard demos, things like that," he said. "That happened, so it's a different type of dynamic. These aircraft were not flying acrobatics when the incident occurred."
For the local shows, specific precautions are taken, such as marking the ground so pilots don't fly directly over the crowd.
"It's essentially a see-and-avoid when you're in the air," he said.
There's also an air-traffic controller, or "air boss," whose job it is to pace the show.
"(They) help maintain that visual separation and sequencing so that there's something in front of the crowd the entire time," he said.
The Dallas crash, though, he said happened very quickly.
"The pilots and the crews, they -- I don't know if they even knew what had happened," he said.
Schultz says if that was the case, it may bring some comfort to friends and family of the victims.
"These guys died doing what they loved," he said.
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