Link:
Link to related story the day before it crashed.
just heard on radio
What a shame. Seeing as how everybody escaped, is it alright to make a “bought the farm” joke? Good luck they had an open corn field to drop onto. Wonder what has to happen to a 4-engine to cause a crash landing?
Chicago Tribune stated an engine fire reported.
Perhaps unable to extinguish and had to set down immediately to stay alive.
I guess I was thinking “engine failure” without the flames - flaming engine would explain a lot & make me want to get feet on-ground asap too.
Oh, No! It’s the “Liberty Belle”, the most recently restored and pristine B-17 in operation. I took a ride in it in 2006. It seemed so big and strong- and it was beautiful- like new, inside and out. I could just cry…
More with pictures: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110613/news/706139915/photos/
I can’t speak for a WWII bomber, but in my pilot training they told us not to try and extinguish such a fire, but to get the airplane on the ground ASAP. because if you screw around trying to put out the fire, you could fail to do so and only have wasted time while the fire consumes your aircraft further. The Only thing I would have tried was slamming it full throttle to see if it starved the flames for oxygen, which would only take seconds, but after that I’d be lining up on the corn field.
Well, on the B-17, there are fuel shutoff valves and an engine fire extinquisher system, so the procedure would normally be to secure and feather the engine, then activate the fuel shutoff valves and see if the fire diminished before activating the extinguisher. All this would be accomplished while returning for landing and is one reason the airplane requires two pilots. One small problem is that the valves are solenoid valves, electrically operated and normally open when no electrical power is present, and there are a whole lot of ways the valve could fail open, so all the extinguishing agent available (I’m guessing CO2) wouldn’t even make a dent in the fire. You can see in one of the aerial photos the fire damage to the right stabilizer and elevator, so the fire was well organized. And guess what is located in the wing right behind the engine nacelle?
Good news about the crew, but very sad news that the plane was lost.
And if you’ll note the props on the No. 2(?) (inboard, port side) engine are indeed feathered. I’d also note that the idiots that reported the incident reported it as a crash, which is appears it did not. There are pictures of the bird sitting on all three landing gear burning away. In fact, one picture I saw looked like it was taken just before the fuselage burned in two midships.
It is indeed very sad to see it gone. Hopefully, they can salvage the engines/nacells for the restoration of another airworthy B-17. It was good to see they at least landed it and all got out mostly unscathed. Too bad they couldn’t get any closer to the airport where perhaps better firefighting equipment was available.
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas