Today is
Thursday June 04, 2026
HENDERSON COUNTY – A narcotics search warrant in Henderson County led to the arrest of two sisters and the discovery of several illegal drugs on Tuesday.
According to our news partner KETK, Henderson County Sheriff’s Office investigators conducted the search warrant in the 500 block of Williams Street and 3rd Streets in Athens at about 11:13 p.m. During the search, two sisters, Robyn Lynnette Dewberry and Unshella Reene Dewberry, were taken into custody.
Deputies found a quantity of suspected cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana while searching the house. Multiple digital scales and plastic baggies, which are commonly used in narcotics distribution, were also located.
Robyn was arrested for manufacturing, delivery of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance and Unshella was arrested for possession of a controlled substance. The sisters were transported to the Henderson County Jail and are awaiting arraignment.
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SMITH COUNTY – The Smith County Commissioners Court approved a contractor Tuesday for the Animal Shelter project. Casey Slone Construction was one of six bids received. Construction will begin immediately and is expected to be completed by the end of November. The shelter upgrade will cost about $1.8 million, including architect’s fees, and will be paid for by ARPA funding.
The project cost came in above what was planned, partially because of the amount of work that will need to be done underground, including a new sewer system. The project will include renovating the Animal Shelter building and the building next door, which previously housed the Facility Services Department. Read the rest of this entry »
ZAVALLA – An Angelina County home was left with substantial damage after a fire broke out for unknown reasons on Monday morning, officials say. According to the Huntington Volunteer Fire Department, several VFDs were dispatched to assist Zavalla VFD at a structure fire on Kitchen Cemetery Road. The majority of the fire was contained to the attic space, but the home sustained major damage.
The cause of the fire is unknown to fire officials at this time, Huntington VFD said. No injuries were reported and several valuable items were saved.
MARSHALL — An educational aide has been terminated from Marshall ISD after being arrested for allegedly swinging a student by her feet last week. The Marshall ISD Police Department was made aware of an incident involving former educational aide Rachel Kirspel and a student at the Marshall Early Child Hood Center on May 14.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by our news partner KETK, Kirspel had hung a 5-year-old student upside down by her feet and “had swung her side to side and then up and down,” hitting her head. Kirspel told investigators that she was trying to help get the kids on their mats for nap time but one student did not and instead was “playing around.” Kirspel put the student over her shoulder but when that didn’t work, she hung her upside down.
The student told investigators that Kirspel had pulled her nap mat from underneath her and flipped her over before picking her up by her feet, swinging her, and calling her “ugly.” Read the rest of this entry »
CHEROKEE COUNTY – A woman has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly shooting her boyfriend twice in the head near Alto on Monday. According to our news partner KETK , Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office deputies were dispatched to a residence in rural Alto at around 7 p.m. Sheriff Brent Dickson said the shooting was initially reported as an accident.
33-year-old Alanna Bilbo, and her boyfriend were in an argument about their relationship when her boyfriend started “yelling at her to shoot him,” the affidavit said. Bilbo then reportedly shot him between the eyes with a .22 caliber revolver and then again in the back of the neck after he turned to the left. After being flown to a Tyler hospital, the victim remains in stable condition as of Tuesday morning, Dickson said.
Bilbo was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, family violence and is being held at the Cherokee County Jail with a $150,000 bond.
Biblo and her boyfriend were allegedly using narcotics, Dickson told KETK News.
NEW YORK (AP) — The bond market is usually a quiet corner of Wall Street, one where moves get measured in hundredths of a percentage point. But the warning signals it sends can be powerful enough to drag stock markets up and down and in the past have even convinced President Donald Trump and other world leaders to back off some of their most extreme actions.
It’s making noise again.
Bond markets around the world have seen yields climb to heights not reached in years and, in some cases, decades. Atop the litany of reasons for that is oil prices and whether they will stay high because of the war with Iran. Worries about big and growing debts for the U.S. government and others are also influencing bond markets.
The rising yields are putting downward pressure on stock markets after they rocketed to records on excitement about big corporate profits and the promise of artificial-intelligence technology. They’re also dragging on economies around the world. Here’s a look at what’s going on, and how things got this way:
Budding bond yields
In the United States, the centerpiece of the bond market has hit its highest yield in more than a year. The 10-year Treasury yield, which shows how much interest investors want the U.S. government to pay them before they’ll lend it money for a decade, has topped 4.60%. That’s up from less than 4% before the Iran war began in late February, and it’s a notable move for the bond market.
Other kinds of yields are even higher. The 30-year U.S. Treasury yield has jumped well above 5% and is back to where it was in 2007, before the 2008 financial crisis sent yields crashing toward zero worldwide.
In Japan, the yield on the 10-year government bond has climbed back to where it was in the 1990s.
High yields can slow the economy
When the U.S. and other governments have to pay more in interest to borrow money, so do people and companies without the power to repay debts by levying taxes.
For many U.S. households, that’s most easily seen through rates for mortgages. Such rates have climbed with Treasury yields since the Iran war began, and the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage has stubbornly remained above 6%, breaking from its general downdraft before the Iran war.
Higher yields also make it more expensive for U.S. companies to borrow money to build factories and otherwise grow. That’s particularly dangerous at this moment, when big investments in data centers to power AI are a major driver of the U.S. economy’s growth.
If higher yields discourage companies from borrowing to build more data centers, that could undercut the economy when U.S. households say they’re already discouraged about inflation and tariffs.
High yields affect all kinds of investments
A slowdown in the economy is one of the reasons higher yields put downward pressure on the stock market. It threatens the amount of profits that companies can make, which is the lifeblood of the stock market.
High yields undercut the stock market in other ways too. When a Treasury is paying more in interest, that can draw investors away from investments that carry more risk. Why pay record prices for U.S. stocks when a U.S. government bond is paying more than before to wait in relative safety?
For Michael Wilson and other strategists at Morgan Stanley, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield crossing above 4.50% was a big moment. Above that level is when rates “could serve as more of a noticeable headwind” for stocks.
Not only do stock prices feel downward pressure from high yields in the bond market, so do gold, bitcoin and many other investments.
High yields affect the government
When yields rise, the U.S. and other governments have to pay more in interest to cover their debts. That’s painful when debt loads for governments worldwide are ballooning as they spend far more than they’re bringing in through revenue.
That’s why jumps in yields can scare politicians even more than swings in the stock market.
The bond market helped make Liz Truss the United Kingdom’s shortest-serving prime minister in 2022, when it revolted against her plan to cut taxes and raise spending without a way to pay for them.
Last year, Trump said the bond market may have played a role in his decision to delay many of his proposed tariffs, saying that he noticed investors there “were getting a little queasy.”
And while Trump is famously difficult to predict, bond yields may have jumped enough that “this is the first time we may be close to the point that markets could force Trump’s hand” when it comes resolving the Iran war, according to Tobin Marcus at Wolfe Research.
Can’t the Federal Reserve cut interest rates?
Yes, but there’s a catch. The Fed controls just one part of the bond market: the federal funds rate, which covers overnight loans. Otherwise, it’s not the Fed but investors who set yields for 2-, 10- and 30-year Treasurys.
Of course, where the Fed sets the federal funds rate does filter out and affect other areas of the bond market. But investors are also considering where the economy and inflation are heading in coming years as they settle on how much interest they need to be paid to lend the government money.
At the moment, the U.S. economy looks to be solid enough and inflation looks to be a big-enough threat, that they’re asking for higher yields. Reports showed that U.S. employers hired more workers last month than economists expected, while inflation worsened by more than forecast.
Because of such data and worries about oil prices staying high, investors believe the Fed will most likely leave the federal funds rate alone this year. If the Fed does make a move, expectations are more for a hike to rates than a cut, according to data from CME Group. That’s even though Trump keeps calling for lower rates and now has his man in place to lead the Fed as its chair.
If the Fed were to cut interest rates anyway, that could spark fears that its commitment to keeping inflation low is wavering. That in turn could send the 10-year Treasury yield even higher.
LUFKIN – A Lufkin man died Monday night from injuries sustained in wreck on U.S. 59 south, near College Drive. According to a release, 24 -year-old Jose Benitez, was traveling north in the outside lane of U.S. 59 around 5:50 p.m. Monday, approaching the intersection of College Drive when the FedEX truck he was driving struck the rear of an 18-wheeler that was slowing down due to traffic backed up at the traffic light.
Benitez swerved to the right to avoid impact, but the driver’s side of the truck struck the left back side of the tractor-trailer. Benitez was able to get out of the truck and was taken by Lufkin paramedics to a hospital, where he died around 8 p.m. from his injuries.
Lufkin Police continue to investigate the accident, and an autopsy has been ordered.
PALESTINE – Three teenagers were placed under arrest on Sunday after driving a vehicle stolen from Jacksonville. According to our news partner KETK and the Palestine Police Department, officers on Sunday observed a vehicle matching the description of a vehicle recently reported stolen being driven near North Sycamore and West Pine Streets.
While the officers attempted to make a traffic stop, the driver sped off, prompting a police chase. The vehicle pursuit ended after the vehicle struck a curb, leaving it disabled.
The suspect, who was identified as a minor, and two other teenage boys proceeded to exit the car and attempted to leave the scene on foot. Two of the boys were located and arrested shortly after the incident on Sunday, while the third was taken into custody on Monday morning. Read the rest of this entry »
Bullard – Bullard has announced that Kristen Haynes will be the new principal of Bullard Elementary School. Mrs. Haynes currently serves as assistant principal and testing coordinator. She will step into the role following the retirement of the current principal, Amy Bickerstaff, this summer.
Mrs. Haynes has served in education since 2009 and has held teaching and administrative roles in Bullard ISD since 2015. Before becoming assistant principal of Bullard Elementary School in 2022, she served as a 6th-grade English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR) teacher and team leader at Bullard Intermediate School and dean of students (grades 3-5) for summer school. Mrs. Haynes has also held teaching and administrative roles at Tyler ISD and Cumberland Academy.
Mrs. Haynes earned a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and a Master of Educational Leadership from Stephen F. Austin State University.
AUSTIN (THE TEXAS TRIBUNE) — After almost 20 years of bouncing from campground to campground, Orr Family Ministries finally found its home in 2022 on a 12-acre tree-filled campground located on a hill in Colorado County.
Kids played in the swimming pool, worshipped by the fire pit, and watched the sunset over the hill while learning about Bible stories.
They called it Camp Oak Haven, providing refuge for about 100 children from surrounding low-income and rural communities.
But, this summer, Camp Oak Haven won’t be reopening. Orr Family Ministries has sold the land because it could not meet sweeping regulations the state abruptly placed on the camp industry.
“We are sad. It’s terrible. We had church groups coming, and we had to give back deposits, and I don’t know where those kids will go,” said Cynthia Royal, Orr Family Ministries board president. “The dent is in these rural communities where kids or parents don’t have huge incomes to send them to a huge mega camp miles away.”
After the deadly July 4 Hill Country floods that killed 27 children and counselors at Camp Mystic, Texas lawmakers required youth camps to implement a slew of new safety requirements, including weather warning systems and having fiber optic internet, and pay thousands of dollars more in licensing fees.
While the state has pulled back on the internet requirement for now, the regulations have shaken up the industry, according to multiple camp directors. Previously licensed camps have reduced their hours of operation, so the state no longer has to license them and they can avoid paying higher licensing fees. Urban camps are scaling back activities for children due to burdensome safety plan requirements, and rural camps are closing due to uncertainty.
Families are also impacted. Many of Camp Oak Haven’s are low-income or work and need daytime care and enrichment for their children during the summer months. Some are still scrambling to find other options after camp officials announced the closure at the end of March.
The state does not track the number of camps that have closed since the new requirements went into effect. But compared to the list of active Texas camps in December, 66 camps no longer appear on the most recent roster updated Friday. It’s not clear how many of those closed because of the regulations or if they’ve scaled back operations so the state doesn’t need to license them.
There are currently 316 camps licensed by the state and the state has approved 47 applications to operate this summer, but most of the rest can still open because their licenses haven’t expired yet or their applications are pending.
“We told them this would happen, but they didn’t listen to any of us,” Royal said about camps closing. “Lawmakers threw out a blanket rule for all camps across the entire state without taking realistic things into consideration. How far away from water are you? How urban are you? How rural are you? None of that was considered.”
In April, a group of 19 camps in Texas filed a lawsuit, arguing the requirement to install fiber-optic internet does not make their properties safer, violates the state Constitution and state law regarding property rights, and could prevent them from opening.
Texas Department of State Health Services, the state’s licensing body for camps, announced this month that it reached an agreement with the 19 operators, dropping the fiber-optic internet requirement for now. Any camps that maintain at least two ways of accessing broadband internet service can be licensed this summer, as long as they meet other safety requirements.
The deal came months too late for Camp Oak Haven.
“We are praising God that the state of Texas and different legislators are waking up and realizing maybe we made a mistake and that this was too much of a blanket rule to throw on everybody because not everybody is on the same boat,” Royal said.
Even with the fiber optics settlement, high licensing fees, an inspection backlog, emergency plan rewrites, and requirements that may force structural changes at camps that are in floodplains threaten to close some youth camps, camp directors say.
When lawmakers revisit camp safety standards during next year’s legislative session, camp directors hope lawmakers will truly consider their feedback.
“It would be like them passing aviation laws without pilot input,” said Eddie Walker, the executive director of Mt. Lebanon Camp and Retreat in Cedar Hill. “Riding on the plane doesn’t qualify them to understand the intricacies of what they do, their training, and experience to fly safely.”
Losing a ‘glimpse into heaven’
Chris Stephens, minister at Ave. G Church of Christ in Temple, has been sending his youth groups along with his four daughters to Camp Oak Haven for several summers because, to him, the camp on the hill was a glimpse into heaven.
“My family didn’t take vacations. We went to camp. We viewed it as that important,” he said.
His children won’t be attending camp this summer and it’s likely the 100 or so others that used to attend won’t either because there are few camp offerings in their remote area. The lack of options affect campers from low-income families particularly harder because parents rely on camps so they can go to work.
“I got some letters from camps in Louisiana and Arkansas about summer camps, but we are a small church, and we can’t afford to send our youth that far away,” he said. “We are looking at vacation bible school, but most of them died out after COVID-19, and they only last one day which is no replacement for camps.”
The fiber optics requirement was Camp Oak Haven’s downfall. Camp Oak Haven officials reached out to multiple internet providers, and the answer was always the same: it’s too remote to even be possible to install fiber.
A preliminary study by the Christian Camps and Conference Association found that at least 173 Texas camps lack fiber access.
Even if camps could find some way to install fiber, it would be very expensive. At one extreme, Camp Liberty said in court filings that it received a quote for $1 million in upfront costs plus a $3,500 monthly service fee over five years. Camp Longhorn received a quote of more than $1.2 million.
“We know other camps that were having to spend over $100,000 to get fiber optics to just stay afloat,” Royal said.
Although the current reprieve will allow camps to stay open this summer, there’s no guarantee that the state will drop the requirement next summer — and rural camps will still face the same challenge of finding someone who will install the service and paying for it.
Beyond the fiber optics requirement, the licensing fee increase for camps and burdensome safety requirements, such as creating rooftop exits on cabins not near the water, are straining the finances of these rural, mostly nonprofit organizations.
Royal said they used some of the funds from the sale of Camp Oak Haven to help other camps to cover their licensing fees or fiber-optic requirements for the summer. Others have offered to honor the price Camp Oak Haven used to charge their families to make it easier for any interested families to join.
But, there will never be another Camp Oak Haven, Stephens said.
“Those relationships made at camp won’t be present anymore. I have witnessed friendships, marriages, and people turn to the ministry because of this camp, and it’s now gone,” he said.
Urban challenge
Camps in the state’s metro areas, which serve the majority of Texas children, run during the day time hours and are also subject to the new state rules. Although lawmakers wrote the rules to better regulate overnight camps, particularly those in rural areas, the regulations don’t make sense for urban camps and the state made no exceptions, camp officials say.
Some of the requirements that are less applicable to urban camps include having rooftop access to cabins and flood emergency plans.
“One of the demands is for having exits for cabins, and one of our camps is at a Catholic girls’ school in Houston. We haven’t seen (requirements like this) in our 32 years of operation,” Mike McDonell, president of Kidventure, which operates 31 day camp locations across Houston, Dallas, and Austin. “The problem is that the state attempted to create safety rules for the situation with Camp Mystic but applied them to all camps.”
Camps located in Harris, Travis, Dallas, Bexar, and Tarrant counties make up about a third of the statewide roster and often provide summer activities for many inner-city or low-income youth at discounted rates, so their budgets are small. “For many, our camp is one of the safest places they are at all year — the same thing for our inner-city camps across the state,” said Walker, whose Cedar Hill camp is in Dallas County.
The state has previously charged day camps between $52 and $155, depending on how many campers they have, to renew their licenses annually. The state has now increased the annual renewal fee for a small day youth camp to $750 and can reach $3,500 for those with 5,000 or more campers. This hike falls particularly hard on multi-location operators. Each licensed site has to pay the fee, not just the parent organization.
“It’s a massive tax on great and safe ministries and programs, including urban-based camps,” Walker said.
Because the state has to license certain day camps if they offer activities like archery, riflery and horseback riding, some urban camps are cutting those programs so they no longer have to be licensed by the state and pay the fees, according to camp directors.
“Some camps may have reduced the number of specialized activities they offer so that they do not meet the definition of a youth camp,” said Lara Anton, a spokesperson for DSHS. “If a camp offers only one or no specialized activity, they are not qualified as a youth camp and do not need to be licensed by DSHS.”
The pain of losing one camp is felt by all in the industry, Walker said. Some of the smallest camps at risk of closing serve a particular niche – children with autism, Down syndrome, mobility issues, deaf children, cancer and diabetes.
“In a business world, a law or regulation that drives the small competitors out of business is really helpful to the big corporation,” he said. “The camp realm is different, and we all work closely together because there is no shortage of children, teens, and needs to serve in every part of the state.”
AUSTIN (THE TEXAS TRIBUNE) — Dozens of wind projects in Texas are in limbo after the U.S. Department of Defense paused issuing routine federal permits citing national security concerns, a move that experts say expands the Trump administration’s crusade against wind energy.
According to data collected by the American Clean Power Association, 54 Texas wind projects are waiting for the department to review development plans to ensure that turbines don’t interfere with military operations. It’s part of a broader nationwide logjam that has ensnared 165 onshore wind projects, a figure first reported by the Financial Times.
Federal law requires any structure 200 feet or taller — such as antennas, smokestacks or wind turbines — to be reviewed first by the Federal Aviation Administration, then the military, which must determine whether a structure may interfere with military airspace.
Federal law requires the Department of Defense to conduct those reviews within 60 days of receiving an application from the FAA. But “right now, the entire process has just ground to a halt,” said Dave Belote, a wind energy consultant who helped design the review system when it was established more than 15 years ago.
Normally, the defense department evaluates whether a turbine is within the line of sight of a radar or in a low-altitude military airspace. If so, the department and developer typically agree on mitigation options — a process that usually takes a matter of weeks.
“In the past, those have been fairly trivial — you meet the requirements and you get the permit,” said Jonathon Blackburn, an Austin-based energy consultant.
However, the department has not approved a wind project since August 2025, and in April the department canceled all pending meetings with wind developers waiting for clearance, according to the trade group.
These delays have caused disruptions to developers’ projects, hindering their ability to secure project financing, jeopardizing local permits contingent on federal approvals, and delaying construction timelines, turbine orders, and contractor scheduling.
“There’s a lot of delay coming out of the permitting process from the federal government, and delays add cost,” Blackburn said. “Maybe the federal government is not able to flat-out stop projects, but they are able to drag them out.”
In a statement, a DoD official said that the department is still actively evaluating the projects to ensure they do not impair national security or military operations, a process that requires high levels of interagency coordination.
The department’s evaluation of wind turbines “is inherently complex and time-consuming because it involves balancing two critical, and sometimes competing, interests: developing energy sources while ensuring military operations and readiness are not degraded or impaired to the extent an unacceptable risk to national security is created,” the official said.
The department didn’t respond to questions about why approval wait times have blown past federally required deadlines.
“It’s not clear why these policies are being implemented during an affordability crisis, but I think it shows the level of disdain the administration has for renewable energy in general and wind power specifically,” said University of Texas energy professor Michael Webber.
Texas is home to more wind turbines than any other state, and also has a number of military installations.
According to a 2019 report by the Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute, there are 17 military bases with flight facilities in the state and large expanses of airspace set aside for military operations. This includes several training routes for Air Force and Navy pilots flying out of Laughlin Air Force Base near Del Rio, the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, San Antonio’s Randolph Air Force Base and the Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene.
The pause is the latest move by an administration that is attempting to slow the growth of wind power across the U.S. Most of the administration’s efforts have focused on offshore projects.
Last year, the administration suspended leases for five major projects off the East Coast, citing national security concerns related to radar interference. Federal judges later ruled against the administration in all five cases, finding that the government exceeded its authority and failed to prove that the projects posed national security threats. All five projects have since resumed construction.
The Interior Department announced in March that it had reached an agreement with TotalEnergies to pay the company $1 billion to walk away from a planned offshore wind project and instead expand fossil fuel investments.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A fast-growing wildfire sparked by the fatal crash of a small medical plane outside Ruidoso, New Mexico, has triggered evacuations for a rural area north of the Capitan Mountains and closures in the Lincoln National Forest, officials said Monday.
The plane was en route from Roswell Air Center to Sierra Blanca Regional Airport when it crashed before dawn Thursday, killing the four people aboard. They were identified as pilots Keelan Clark and Ali Kawsara with the company Generation Jets and flight nurses Jamie Novick and Sarah Clark with Trans Aero MedEvac.
“Our hearts remain with the families and loved ones navigating an unimaginable loss,” Matt Goertz, vice president of Trans Aero MedEvac, said in a joint statement with Generation Jets.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.
The wildfire grew rapidly over the weekend amid dry and windy conditions, nearly doubling in size between Sunday and Monday morning to more than 19 square miles (50 square kilometers). It was burning out of control in a sparsely populated area despite the efforts of more than 600 firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and several interagency Hotshot crews.
Adam Turner, a public information officer for the fire, said steep, rugged terrain has made it impossible for crews to engage the fire directly.
“This is what firefighters call ‘mountain goat territory,’” said Turner, adding that crews were instead working to contain and steer the fire away from several evacuated cattle ranches to the northeast and the community of Arabella to the west.
A red flag warning remained in effect across southern New Mexico on Monday, with wind speeds forecast between 20-30 mph (32-50 kph).
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — After the two Navy jets collided in midair, the planes sandwiched together, all four crew members were able to eject and deploy their parachutes, floating down to safety as the aircraft careened into a field, exploding into a fireball.
The collision happened Sunday during the “Gunfighter Skies” air show at the Mountain Home Air Force Base about 57 miles (92 kilometers) southwest of Boise.
Here are some things to know about the crash.
Just one crew member was injured
Only one of the four crew members on the two planes was injured and was being treated at a hospital, Cmdr. Amelia Umayam, spokesperson for Naval Air Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet, said Monday. The injury was not life-threatening.
The fact that all four were able to safely eject and make it to the ground without landing in the wreckage is “truly remarkable,” said Billie Flynn, a former F-35 senior test pilot and demonstration expert.
“It is astonishing considering the way the airplanes impacted each other — incomprehensible even,” Flynn said.
The two U.S. Navy EA18-G Growlers were from the Electronic Attack Squadron 129 in Whidbey Island, Washington. Each held two crew members.
The EA-18G Growler, measuring 60.2 feet (18.5 meters) long, made its first flight in August 2006 and was the first newly designed electronic warfare aircraft produced in more than 35 years, according to the Navy. Its “baptism of fire” was in 2011 in Libya, according to the Navy, and since then it’s been used worldwide.
The planes appeared sandwiched together before the crash
Videos taken by spectators show one of the jets was slightly behind the other before impact, and the two aircraft then appeared to become sandwiched together, with the belly of one jet just behind and to the side of the top of the other jet.
The jets then twisted and rocked together, pointing straight up for a moment before turning downward and falling to the ground. The subsequent impact resulted in a fireball, black smoke rising into the sky.
The crew members ejected in quick succession with their parachutes opening as the jets began to pivot toward the ground.
The cause of the crash is not yet known
Videos of the collision suggest human error is to blame, Flynn said.
Before colliding, Flynn said the video shows they were trying to line up closely — wing tip to wing tip — but failed to safely rejoin in formation, a routine maneuver.
“This is clearly a pilot error,” Flynn said.
Officials have not yet released any information about what may have contributed to the crash. The incident is under investigation, Umayam said, and efforts to recover the damaged aircraft are underway.
“Our priority is to ensure the safety and well-being of our personnel, as well as security of the aircraft during the recovery,” Umayam wrote in an email to The Associated Press.
Air shows are inherently dangerous
Pilots who perform at air shows are among the best, but there is little room for error, said aviation safety expert John Cox, who is CEO of Safety Operating Systems.
“Air show flying is demanding. It has very little tolerance,” Cox said. “The people who do it are very good and it’s a small margin for error. I’m glad everybody was able to get out.”
The air show industry has been working to improve safety for years at the roughly 200 events held each year in the U.S. The last fatal crashes at an air show came in 2024 when two people were killed in separate accidents at different events.
This year’s Gunfighter Skies event was the first at the base since 2018, when a hang glider pilot died in a crash during an air show performance.
In 2003, a Thunderbirds aircraft crashed while attempting a maneuver. The pilot, who was not hurt, was able to steer the plane away from the crowd and eject less than a second before it hit the ground.
John Cudahy, president and CEO of the International Council of Air Shows, said that there used to be an average of 3.8 deaths a year at a U.S. air show from 1991 to 2006. That number has been steadily improving and since 2017 there have only been an average of 1.1 deaths per year even including a crash in Dallas in 2022 that killed six when two vintage planes collided. There were no air show deaths in 2025 or 2023, and a spectator hasn’t been killed at an air show in the U.S. since 1952.