More info:
Pilot killed in crash after Houston air show
11:43 PM CDT on Saturday, October 18, 2003
From 11 News Staff Reports
A vintage warplane crashed Saturday night near Ellington Field killing the pilot.
The F-4 Wildcat, a vintage World War II-era warplane, went down around 6 p.m. killing the 55-year-old male pilot who identity has not been released yet.
The plane crashed after the Wings Over Houston air show had ended for the day in a wooded field just north of Clear Lake Boulevard, between Highway 3 and I-45 in southeast Houston. No one else was injured in the crash.
Authorities say the pilot was practicing a flight maneuver after the show had ended.
Houston Aviation Department spokesman Ernie DeSoto said the plane was not involved in the Wings Over Houston Air Show held earlier in the day at Ellington Field.
But Houston Fire Department District Chief Tommy Dowdy said the pilot, described as a 55-year-old white male from the East Coast, was affiliated with Wings over Houston and had taken part in the show in some capacity.
Dowdy said the plane landed upright, but the wings were sheared off.
"It (the plane) dug in; it hit hard; it's barely recognizable," Dowdy was quoted as saying in the Houston Chronicle's online edition Saturday.
The F-4 Wildcat has a wingspan of 38 feet and can fly more than 300 miles per hour. That speed and size made it an asset for American fighter pilots in World War II especially against the Japanese in the Pacific Theatre.
