Bradley WWII Plane Crash: New Details Emerge
WINDSOR LOCKS, CT — The vintage World War II B-17 bomber was only two minutes into a living history tour Oct. 2 at Bradley International Airport when the pilot radioed he was having engine trouble and wanted to return to the airport. Three minutes later, the warbird crashed into a maintenance building and burst into flames, according to a preliminary report from federal investigators released Tuesday.
Seven people were killed and six others were injured.
The exact cause of the deadly crash has yet to be determined. But the four-page report from the National Transportation Safety Board sheds new light on the minutes before the fiery crash.
What the report does say is the plane was 500 feet off the ground when the pilot noticed the engine trouble and tried to turn back. Air traffic controllers worked to guide the pilot’s return to the airport, but the plane struck approach lights more than 1,000 feet before the runway, made contact with the ground 500 feet later, then crashed into a maintenance building and vehicles, sparking a fire.
NTSB preliminary report Bra… by Ellyn Santiago on Scribd
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Details released Tuesday by the NTSB
The pilot of the Boeing B-17G took off from the airport at 9:48 a.m. Oct. 2. Joining the three-member crew were 10 passengers who paid several hundreds dollars each for the living history experience as part of the Collings Foundation’s Wings of Freedom Tour.
But then engine problems started almost immediately and the pilot was not able to gain altitude, investigators said. The pilot tried to circle back and return to the runway but lost control. At 9:53, the plane crashed into a de-icing maintenance building at the end of Runway 6 and burst into flames. Recordings from air traffic control and Windsor Locks police and rescue describe a terrifying crash and its aftermath: “A B-17 has crashed. A B-17 has crashed.”
The NTSB report said when the pilot told air traffic controllers he wanted to return to the airport, they asked him if he needed help, “to which he replied no,” according to the report. The pilot told a controller the plane’s No. 4 engine was running rough and the controller told the pilot to land on Runway 6, canceling the approach of another plane that had been headed for landing.
When the plane got to about 300 feet off the ground, the pilot told the controller he was “getting there.” It was the last communication from the pilot.
Witnesses and airport surveillance video show that after the plane hit the approach lights and crashed to the ground short of the runway, it veered right and collided with vehicles and a deicing fluid tank about 1,100 feet right of the runway, the report said.
The aftermath
The lost lives included the pilot and co-pilot. Authorities initially said the crash scene was so gruesome some of the victims’ identities were merely presumed because of the difficulty in identifying bodies.
Killed were:
Pilot Ernest ‘Mac’ McCauley, 75, of Long Beach, CaliforniaCo-pilot Michael Foster, 71, of Jacksonville, FloridaGary Mazzone, 66, of Broad Brook, ConnecticutJames Roberts, 48, of Ludlow, MassachusettsRobert Riddell, 59, of East Granby, ConnecticutRobert Rubner, 64, of Tolland, ConnecticutDavid Broderick, 56, of West Springfield, Massachusetts
Injured were:
Andy Barrett, 36, of South Hadley, MassachusettsLinda Schmidt, 62, of Suffield, ConnecticutTom Schmidt, 62, of Suffield, ConnecticutJoseph Huber, 48, of Tariffville, ConnecticutJames Traficante, 54, of Simsbury, ConnecticutFlight engineer Mitchell Milton, 34, of Dalhart, TexasAirport worker Andrew Sullivan, 28, of Enfield, Connecticut
The Federal Aviation Administration halted all flights in and out of the airport for several hours after the crash.
About the plane
The plane, known as the “Nine-O-Nine,” was owned by the Collings Foundation of Stowe, Massachusetts. Its last major inspection was in January.
The day after the crash, federal officials said witnesses told the NTSB they saw work being conducted on one or two of the plane’s engines before takeoff. A witness told The Associated Press he heard an engine sputter and saw smoke plumes coming out of the back of the plane, as it made a wide turn to return to the airport. He described a “rumbling and the thunder” coming from the craft.
Prior to the Oct. 2 crash, vintage World War II-era bombers were listed as being involved in 21 accidents investigated by the NTSB since the creation of its database in 1982. Three of the previous accidents involved Boeing B-17G planes like the Nine-O-Nine. Twenty-three people were killed and one was injured in the previous crashes.
There are 16 B-17Gs currently registered in the United States, the last among thousands turned out during the war.
In the days after after the crash, NTSB member Jennifer Homendy said the agency would look at whether authorities should continue to allow vintage planes to offer living history flights.
“I think 21 incidents is tragic and 23 deaths is completely unacceptable,” she said. A final decision won’t come until the NTSB finalizes its report, which is expected to take months.
“Our mission is to determine what happened, why it happened and to prevent it from happening again,” Homendy said.
The Oct. 2 crash at Bradley was not the first serious incident involving the “Nine-O-Nine.” The plane was involved in a crash in 1987 at a Pittsburgh airshow when the pilot “overshot the runway” while attempting to land. Three were injured — one seriously — in that crash at Beaver County Airport where, it was reported, “gusty winds” caused the bomber to “plunge down a hillside as thousands of spectators were waiting for the show’s finale.”
The official crash investigation report found that during an approach in gusty winds, the plane’s 72-year-old pilot said the plane’s right wing began to lift after it touched down. He tried to maintain control, but was unable to stop on the remaining runway. The plane continued “off an embankment at the end of the runway and was damaged.”
The investigation found the crash was caused by four factors: a gusty crosswind, excessive airspeed, and the unnamed pilot misjudged the runway and landing distance, and did not abort the landing.
The NTSB reports said the plane sustained “substantial” damage in the incident. The Collings Foundation said the plane later would be repaired, but in 1995, the it was damaged again while landing in Nebraska. There were no injuries in that incident.
The foundation launched a fundraising campaign to raise $75,000 for a new engine after the crew started looking into issues it experienced during a flight on Sept. 15, 2018. The inspection determined the plane’s No. 3 engine was failing, the foundation said on Facebook, which would appear to be a different engine than the No. 4 engine cited in the NTSB report about the Oct. 2 crash.
The foundation shipped a spare engine to Vermont to replace the failing No. 3 engine after that September 2018 incident, but the spare had problems of its own, requiring the need for another spare to be sent. The foundation asked supporters to help cover the growing cost of replacing the engine.
The “flight experience donations received from visitors flying in ‘Nine-O-Nine’ are a very important part of keeping the Wings of Freedom Tour flying across the nation each year, so the loss of this fundraising makes it even more tough,” the foundation said in its plea for donations.
All Collings living history flights suspended
Since the crash at Bradley, Collings suspended all of is living history flights and brought its fleet back to its Florida base. It said in a letter to its supporters it is cooperating fully with the investigation. But also asked living history aficionados to contact federal authorities to lobby for the continuation of the flights.
While offering “thoughts and prayers,” and gratitude to “heroic” first responders, it reiterated its mission of “making history come alive as we have for over 30 years.”
The foundation said the Wings of Freedom Tour has “touched the lives of millions,” including tens of thousands of people who have taken living history flights in more than 3,600 communities. It said people who’ve taken the flights have found them “powerful and life-changing.”
“We need to let federal agencies know that the (living history flights) program is important to you and other American citizens as an educational tool,” the foundation wrote, adding links to the FAA regulations public comments webpage.
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