The six people who died after two planes collided midair during the Wings over Dallas Airshow on November 12 at the Dallas Executive Airport have been identified.
Five crew members of the World War II-era Boeing B17 Flying Fortress and the pilot of the Bell P-63 Kingcobra all perished. The Houston-based aircraft were not giving rides to paying customers at the time.
The six victims, identified by officials from the Commemorative Air Force, included Terry Baker, Craig Hutain, Kevin “K5” Michels, Dan Ragan, Leonard “Len” Root, and Curt Rowe.
Terry Baker – Terry Baker was a veteran, pilot, and former local politician, according to a public statement by the current mayor of Keller, Armin Mazani.
“Keller is grieving as we have come to learn that husband, father, Army veteran, and former Keller City Councilman Terry Barker was one of the victims of the tragic crash at the Dallas Air Show,” Mazani said on Facebook.
“Terry Barker was beloved by many. He was a friend and someone whose guidance I often sought. Even after retiring from serving on the city council and flying for American Airlines, his love for the community was unmistakable,” Mazani added.
Major Curtis Rowe – Major Curtis Rowe was a mechanic for the B-17 and one of the crew members aboard the Boeing B17 Flying Fortress, according to WFAA’s Ohio-based sister station, 10TV.
Rowe served in the Ohio Wing Civil Air Patrol for over three decades, held every aircrew rating, and earned the Command Pilot Rating.
He used his passion for flying to volunteer as a B-17 crewmember in the Commemorative Air Force.
Leonard “Len” Root – Len Root was identified by the Allied Pilots Association, the American Airlines pilot’s union, and friends.
Speaking to local news outlet WFAA, Root’s friends said he was “a man who always stopped to listen and cared for what you had to say. He was a real technical guy.”
Dan Ragan and Kevin Michels – In a Facebook post, friend Steve Snyder described his friendship with Michels and knowledge of Ragan.
“This morning, I found out that one of the four crew members of the B-17 Texas Raiders was a friend of mine, Kevin Michels, who was a wonderful guy. Also on the plane was 87-year-old Korean war veteran, Dan Ragan, who had been a radio operator on a BPY named the ‘Texas Raiders’ in the Pacific,” the post read.
Craig Hutain – Hutain was 63 years old and worked as an airline pilot. His biography on Tora! Tora! Tora! – Lest We Forget reported he logged more than 34,500 hours of flight time.
Hutain started flying with his father at 10 years old in a J-3 cub and developed a love for sport flying, biplanes, radial engines, and aerobatics after moving west and working at Santa Paula Airport in California.
Hutain began flying with the Commemorative Air Force and Tora Tora Tora airshows, a reenactment of the invasion of Pearl Harbor, in 2009, according to the airshow website. He lived in Montgomery, Texas, in the Houston area.
He became a flight instructor while in college. He graduated with a BS in aeronautical engineering from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California, in 1982 and then started flying for airlines.
The Dallas Express reached out to the Dallas Medical Examiner for more information, but none was available.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was not able to provide an update on the investigation to The Dallas Express at this time, explaining, “The NTSB does not determine cause this early in the investigation. We will provide some additional information about what the investigation has revealed at this point.”
The investigation into the incident is ongoing.
