Midair Collision

Midair Collision. . Two airplanes from the Sioux Falls Army Air Force Radio Training School collided above this site on December 8, 1944. Ten airmen died. The planes were twin-engined AT-18 medium bombers reconfigured as "flying classrooms." Interiors had been stripped and replaced with tables and radio equipment to give students actual flight training before graduation., A combination of overcast skies and airplanes painted silver gray was believed to have led to the tragedy. Known as "hot ships," the AT-18s cruised at 190 mph. Witnesses saw a plane rocket out of a cloud bank at high speed and clip the tail assembly of a second plane., One plane crashed in a student housing area. All seven airmen aboard the doomed craft, and three students in a barracks, died in the resulting inferno. In the other plane, pilot Willard Woody of North Carolina skillfully avoided further tragedy by flying north. Maintaining altitude while the six airmen on board bailed out, Woody also parachuted to safety before his disabled plane crashed east of Renner.