Walk onto the grounds of Wittman Regional Airport during the last week of July, and you’ll feel it immediately. It’s a sensory overload. The smell of 100LL avgas mixes with the scent of mini-donuts. There’s a constant, rhythmic hum of Lycoming engines overhead. For aviation geeks, EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh is the Super Bowl, Christmas, and a family reunion all rolled into one. It’s usually the happiest place on earth for pilots. But when things go wrong at the Oshkosh Wisconsin air show crash sites, the silence that follows the impact is deafening.
It happens fast. One minute, thousands of people are looking up, shielding their eyes from the Wisconsin sun, and the next, there’s a plume of smoke. In 2023, the community was rocked by two separate, devastating accidents in less than 24 hours. People often ask me if Oshkosh is getting more dangerous. Honestly? It’s complicated. When you cram 10,000 aircraft into one airport—making it the busiest control tower in the world for a week—the margin for error basically vanishes.
The 2023 Weekend That Changed Everything
Most people talking about the Oshkosh Wisconsin air show crash history point to July 29, 2023. It was a Saturday. The morning started with the kind of excitement you only see at AirVenture. Then, around 9:00 AM, a T-6 Texan—a legendary World War II-era trainer—went down into Lake Winnebago. It wasn't part of the formal air show box at the time; it was just a plane departing. Devanne Bullington and Zach Colliemer were on board. They didn't make it.
The NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) spent months looking at the wreckage recovered from the lakebed. These planes are heavy. They're powerful. But they are also decades old. When a vintage bird like that hits the water at high speed, the physics are unforgiving.
But the day wasn't over. Just hours later, while the T-6 recovery was still weighing on everyone's mind, a mid-air collision happened on the south end of the airfield. A Rotorway 162F helicopter and an ELA Eclipse 10 gyrocopter tangled in the air. This occurred during the "ultralight" fly-in period. Two more lives lost. Mark Peterson and Thomas Volz. Just like that, the joy of the event was sucked out. It felt heavy. You could see it on the faces of the volunteers in their orange vests.
Why Does This Keep Happening?
You've got to understand the "Oshkosh Arrival." It's a high-pressure environment. Pilots follow a specific procedure called the Fisk Arrival. You fly over a set of railroad tracks at 90 knots and 1,800 feet. Controllers are barking orders like "Green high wing, rock your wings." It’s intense.
The NTSB reports for many Oshkosh Wisconsin air show crash events often point to "pilot spatial disorientation" or "failure to maintain clearance." In plain English? People get distracted. They’re looking at the cool plane next to them, or they’re struggling with a tricky crosswind on Runway 27, and they lose track of the basics.
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Airshows are inherently risky, sure. But at Oshkosh, the risk isn't just the performers doing loops and rolls. It's the "transition" phases. It's the arrival and the departure. It's the sheer density of metal in the sky. When you have pilots with varying levels of experience—from 20,000-hour airline captains to guys who just finished their PPL—operating in the same tight corridors, things can get sketchy.
The Psychology of the "Oshkosh Itch"
There is a phenomenon pilots talk about—often quietly over a beer at the Camp Scholler campsites. It’s the desperate need to get to Oshkosh regardless of weather or mechanical "squawks." We call it "get-there-itis."
It’s a real killer.
I’ve seen pilots push through low ceilings and poor visibility just because they didn't want to miss the opening ceremony. In 2006, a highly experienced pilot, Gerard "Jerry" Coleman, died when his Beechcraft T-34 Mentor crashed during a performance. Even the pros aren't immune. That crash was a wake-up call for many because Coleman was a seasoned "Warbird" pilot. It proved that experience doesn't always provide a safety net when you're pushing an airframe to its limits near the ground.
Breaking Down the Safety Myths
A lot of folks think the Oshkosh Wisconsin air show crash stats are skyrocketing. They aren't. If you look at the raw numbers relative to the number of takeoffs and landings, Oshkosh is statistically quite safe. Over 600,000 people attend. Thousands of planes fly in. Most years go by with only minor "fender benders"—a ground loop here, a collapsed landing gear there.
But when a fatal one happens, it’s global news.
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People think the FAA is lax at these events. That’s a total myth. The FAA and EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) have some of the most stringent briefing requirements in the world. If you're flying in the air show, you're briefed to within an inch of your life. Every maneuver is choreographed. The problem usually lies in the "unstructured" flying—the arrivals and the private flights around the periphery.
The Lake Winnebago Factor
Lake Winnebago is beautiful, but for pilots, it's a trap. It's shallow, it's big, and it can create weird micro-climates. When the T-6 went down in 2023, the water was a factor in the recovery. Divers had to deal with silt and low visibility. For a pilot, losing an engine over the lake means you have very few choices. You're either going in the drink or trying to stretch a glide to a shoreline that is heavily populated.
Lessons Learned from the Wreckage
Every time there is an Oshkosh Wisconsin air show crash, the industry evolves. After the 2023 mid-air, there was a massive push for better ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) adoption among the ultralight and rotorcraft community.
Technology is the best defense we have. If your iPad can show you exactly where the guy behind you is, you're much less likely to turn into him.
But tech fails. Batteries die. Screens wash out in the sun.
The real lesson is "Head on a Swivel." You cannot rely on the tower to see everything. At Oshkosh, you are your own primary safety officer.
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What to Do If You're Attending or Flying In
If you're planning on heading to Wittman Regional, don't let the headlines scare you. But don't be complacent either. Safety at these events is a collective effort. It’s not just about the pilots; it’s about the spectators staying behind the lines and the volunteers keeping their eyes peeled.
Actionable Safety Steps for Pilots and Enthusiasts:
- Study the NOTAM: The Notice to Air Missions for Oshkosh is a book. Read it. Then read it again. If you don't know the procedures by heart, you shouldn't be flying in.
- Check Your Ego: If the weather looks "marginal," stay on the ground. The show will be there tomorrow. The "Oshkosh Wisconsin air show crash" headlines almost always involve someone who thought they could handle "just a little bit" of bad luck.
- Brief Your Passengers: If you're flying in, make sure your passengers know to stay quiet during the arrival. You need 100% of your brainpower for the Fisk Approach.
- Invest in Simulation: Practice the Oshkosh arrival on a flight sim. It sounds dorky, but muscle memory matters when a controller tells you to "spot the dot" and land on the orange square.
- Report Concerns: If you see a pilot acting like a cowboy or an aircraft that looks like it’s held together with duct tape and a prayer, tell an EAA official. Complacency is the enemy.
The legacy of the Oshkosh Wisconsin air show crash victims isn't just a sad story. It's a set of data points that make the next year safer. We fly to honor them, but we fly smarter because of what happened to them. The air show world is a small one. We remember the names. We remember the tail numbers. And we sure as hell try not to repeat the mistakes.
Stay vigilant, keep your airspeed up, and always have an exit strategy. That’s how you survive the busiest airspace on the planet.
Next Steps for Safety Research:
To further understand the mechanics of aviation safety at large-scale events, you should review the official NTSB Aviation Accident Database specifically for Winnebago County. Additionally, the EAA provides an annual "AirVenture Pilot Briefing" video series that is mandatory viewing for anyone flying within 30 miles of the event. Monitoring these updates ensures you are aware of any year-over-year procedural changes designed to prevent mid-air collisions.