The federal investigation of the fatal Wings Over Dallas airshow two months ago won’t be completed for more than a year.
But preliminary findings have raised some concern about the qualifications of “air bosses” at these popular events, which draw tens of thousands of spectators across Texas and the country every year.
Six pilots and crew members were killed when two World War II-era warbirds collided in midair at Dallas Executive Airport as shocked spectators looked on, many of them recording the explosion on their smartphones.
An air boss is the primary operations and safety official who at an airshow functions like a parade marshal, making sure each of the planes involved is carefully positioned both on the runways and in the air.
During an airshow, no Federal Aviation Administration-certified air traffic controller is directing the airshow planes. That’s all done by the air boss, who is often equipped with a headset, walkie-talkie and binoculars, stationed on a platform and making sure everything goes according to plan.
But despite this great responsibility, it was only in 2020 that the FAA began requiring an air boss to have a “letter of authorization” showing he or she had passed certain training requirements. Though approved by the FAA, those requirements have been established not by the agency, but by the International Council of Air Shows, an industry trade group.
ICAS’s Air Boss Recognition Program requires that applicants be evaluated on dozens of tasks, including their ability to conduct detailed preflight briefings of FAA airshow rules and regulations.
Of concern is that the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report about the Dallas crash released Nov. 30 noted that the pilots had no briefings to coordinate their altitudes either before or during their flights.
That finding, plus video and audio recordings of the moments before, during and after the accident, should prompt the FAA to review the required qualifications of air bosses.
George Cline, a longtime air boss, instructor and former air traffic controller, said the FAA should be more stringent and develop its own enforceable rules and regulations to certify air bosses, as it does for pilots and air traffic controllers, not simply issue letters of authorization.
We don’t know to what extent, if any, the air boss working the fatal Dallas crash bears responsibility, or what other factors contributed to the tragedy. That’s for the federal officials to determine.
But at the very least, this terrible accident has illuminated a possible gap in FAA oversight that needs closing. Air shows operate as nonstandard FAA operations and are governed by mounds of flight standard regulations that the air boss must ensure are followed.
It’s time to add some for the air bosses themselves.
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