Thank you for editing the thread title Para. Been in the engine room and hadn’t seen the comments. My apologies.

Sad. I have flown in both the Collings Foundation B-17 and B-24. Great experience.

A tragedy.

I believe the Collings Foundation is/was coming to the Burlington NC airport on the Oct 18th through the 20th.

I have plans to attend if the event is not cancelled.

very sad news - I've been in that plane several times

The conversation betwwen the crew and ATC is up on LiveATC.net if anyone is interested in hearing it. Crew reports #4 engine trouble and requests an immediate clearance to return to airport.

Every Memorial Day they fly into my local airport. I live a few blocks south of the landing approach flight path and have seen this plan and others come in slow and low to land as well as when it’s up doing flight tours around the area. It makes me smile to hear these loud birds rumble in. Only imagining what a few hundred would sound like taking to go pound Nazis into submission.

Sad to see it go down. The owners of all the other airworthy ones need to take a step back and re-evaluate.

Prayers for those who died in this crash.

My Dad, who flew in B-17's (also 25's and 29's) state side in 44-46 would always comment when we would see them at airshows that they were designed and built to last one mission....maybe 2.

quote:

Originally posted by Rev. A. J. Forsyth:
The conversation betwwen the crew and ATC is up on LiveATC.net if anyone is interested in hearing it. Crew reports #4 engine trouble and requests an immediate clearance to return to airport.

Engine trouble in a radial powered airplane isn't even an emergency: it's an abnormal. In reality, it's a normal.

blancolirio... 'Juan' Browne, says he will have an update soon.






Link to original video: https://youtu.be/IBZSai77xbY

This is the same B-17 Nine-O-Nine that that overshot the runway at he Beaver County Pa airport August 23, 1987

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
When I flew in the B17 over Labor Day Weekend, I remember the P51 was having some difficulties getting going. The passenger was in the P51 ($650 for a ride) and the engine seemed to be acting up. As it was going to take off, it pulled over to the side and then mechanics started working on it a bit until it was ready to take off.

I remember thinking that if I was that passenger, I would have been shitting myself. I hope they’re not sacrificing safety for the revenue made to get a ride in these things.

These planes are now 75 years old, and 75 year old technology. When they were new they were cranky, oil dripping, fire breathing, hard starting beasts, etc. The military had airplane mechanics and spare parts to fix them as soon as they landed most of the time.

I would say that it is a VERY remote incident that a pilot that does rides at air shows would take someone up in a plane that they didn't feel was air worthy.

I fly in a WW II T6- Texan sometimes, that my friend/customer has owned for a very long time and maintains meticulously. He is also rated to fly jets etc. He is an excellent pilot and flies formation and other things at air shows such as Sun and Fun. Everytime he fires it up and taxis out of the FBO and around the airport and takes off, EVERYTHING at the airport just stops and everybody stands there and just watches until after he takes off. We took it up and flew around pulling 3 g's and such. The very next time he flew it, he was flying to sun and fun. landed for fuel, took off, and 8 miles out of the airport cracked a cylinder and blew all of the oil out all over the windshield and plane and enroute back to the airport had to belly land it 1/2 a mile from the runway. The plane has been fixed/restored and is flying again. When you have 75 year old metals that have been stressed their entire life, you're going to have a higher failure rate than a new plane.

BUT, keeping these planes in a museum doesn't do them justice. The smiles and experiences this B17 has put on thousands and thousands of peoples faces who've flew on her and the countless people that have walked through her, the memories it's created are priceless. I too did a tour on this B17, and deeply regret since the day the show left, that I didn't pay to go for a ride on her.

Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU2XXGI_Ke0

7 dead.

https://www.wfsb.com/news/peop...7e02ec67428.amp.html

That's very sad. Every one of those passengers was taking the ride of their life.

They lost No. 4 engine on climbout. Is that enough to require a return?

EDIT:

"What's the reason for coming back?"
"...is on No. 4 engine. We'd like to return and blow it off."

Fire?

Dammit Dammit DAMMIT!!! We got a company e-mail today that BDL had been re-opened and was closed due to an aircraft incident, but it didn't give any details. Thanks SIGforum for providing the details...

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
They lost No. 4 engine on climbout. Is that enough to require a return?

EDIT:

"What's the reason for coming back?"
"...is on No. 4 engine. We'd like to return and blow it off."

Fire?

Require is a strong word. The airplane should be able to climb out on three engines, if nothing else is wrong. However, if the airplane has a fire going on, prudence would dictate getting it back on the ground as quickly as safety allowed.

Apparently that particular B-17 was also a movie star...

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
They lost No. 4 engine on climbout. Is that enough to require a return?

EDIT:

"What's the reason for coming back?"
"...is on No. 4 engine. We'd like to return and blow it off."

Fire?

That has me confused as well. They flew back to home base during the war with 2 engines gone. I wonder if it was a fuel issue.

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
They lost No. 4 engine on climbout. Is that enough to require a return?

EDIT:

"What's the reason for coming back?"
"...is on No. 4 engine. We'd like to return and blow it off."

Fire?

That has me confused as well. They flew back to home base during the war with 2 engines gone. I wonder if it was a fuel issue.

Jim

I don't think it was a simple engine loss at this point. At first I thought a fuel issue had knocked out all the engines, as an eyewitness reported hearing the engines "struggle". But the pilot specifically mentioned No. 4 only, and what else would "blow it off" mean but a fire? Also, other eyewitnesses report seeing smoke coming from an engine before the aircraft crashed.

I briefly wondered if it was a chain of events failure (as with most aircraft disasters), like an engine loss combined with a bad flap configuration (as in no flaps). That would send the pilot scrambling for thrust on the remaining engines. But where's there smoke...