B-17 is lost

[stona]

A shame but I believe that you have to fly old war birds. This is the price that we have,sometimes,to pay. Thankfully it seems that noone was hurt.

WWII bomber crashes near Aurora, all 7 aboard said to be OK - Chicago Breaking News

Steve

[Guest]

Alway sad when this happens and t looks like this is a total loss.

I suppose it is inevitable that no matter how much money and time gets thrown at these things, there will come a day (hopefully not in my lifetime) when it is legislated that they cannot fly these old aircraft anymore just on the grounds of safety. That will be a sad day indeed.

[Gern]

Sad indeed. Good to hear the crew is OK. Even with their legendary toughness, that one ain't gonna limp back to base.

Gern

[Guest]

Yes definately a Cat 5 on that one! Sad to see it happen but as already mentioned glad the crew got out ok :clap_1:

[stona]

I've seen a statement from the foundation's chief test pilot on another site. It's quite long but these are the salient points.

The B-17 developed an engine fire shortly after take off and started to return to the airport when the decision was made to make an emergency landing. Less than two minutes after the fire was reported she made a perfect wheels down landing in a field. Everybody disembarked and even had time to retrieve their bags. The fire service arrived but deemed the field to soft for their vehicles and whilst parked around the perimetre they and the crew watched the B-17 burn out. As he says,aircraft are repaceable and people are not and despite the loss of the aircraft this was a happy ending to what could have been a tragic incident. In flight fires are dangerous situations indeed.

Cheers

Steve

Edit.

Here she is after landing and before the fire spread.

[tr1ckey66]

Yes, I winced when I saw this report on the Yahoo News page. Reading your report though, I can't help thinking that this old girl could have been saved. But you're right, the main thing is no one was hurt.

Very sad.

Paul

[stona]

Yes, I winced when I saw this report on the Yahoo News page. Reading your report though, I can't help thinking that this old girl could have been saved. But you're right, the main thing is no one was hurt.Very sad.

Paul

I think that that is a natural reaction when you see the photo I posted. I don't know anything about fire fighting or the vehicles they would have had to risk in that field. I'm sure they had their reasons and would no more want to watch the aircraft burn than we would. I guess we just have to respect the assessments made by the professionals at the time.

Cheers

Steve