News Cut: June 16, 2011 Archive

The unnecessary death of a B-17 (5x8 - 6/16/11)

Posted at 7:17 AM on June 16, 2011 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Five by 8

1) THE EVEN SADDER END OF THE LIBERTY BELLE

The Liberty Belle, the B-17 that burned in a field outside of Chicago this week, did not crash, new evidence shows. A picture from the ground as the engine burned shows the B-17, which had visited St. Paul a week earlier, had landed successfully. But its chief pilot says firefighters couldn't do anything to save the historical airplane because they didn't want to get stuck in a wet field (note that the field supported the weight of a landing B-17. A B-17 weighs about 36,000 pounds. A fully-loaded fire truck can weigh 50,000 pounds, but didn't the fire department have a fire extinguisher or two?).

It's chief pilot has released a statement about what really happened on Monday:

Directly below the B-17 was a farmer's field and the decision was made to land immediately. Approximately 1 minute and 40 seconds from the radio report of the fire, the B-17 was down safely on the field. Within that 1:40 time frame, the crew shutdown and feathered the number 2 engine, activated the engine's fire suppression system, lowered the landing gear and performed an on-speed landing. Bringing the B-17 to a quick stop, the crew and passengers quickly and safely exited the aircraft. Overhead in the T-6, Cullen professionally coordinated and directed the firefighting equipment which was dispatched by Aurora Tower to the landing location.

Unlike the sensational photos that you have all seen of the completely burned B-17 on the news, you will see from photos taken by our crew that our Liberty Belle was undamaged by the forced landing and at the time of landing, the wing fire damage was relatively small. The crew actually unloaded bags, then had the horrible task of watching the aircraft slowly burn while waiting for the fire trucks to arrive. There were high hopes that the fire would be extinguished quickly and the damage would be repairable. Those hopes were diminished as the fire trucks deemed the field too soft to cross due to the area's recent rainfall. So while standing by our burning B-17 and watching the fire trucks parked at the field's edge, they sadly watched the wing fire spread to the aircraft's fuel cells and of course, you all have seen the end result. There is no doubt that had the fire equipment been able to reach our aircraft, the fire would have been quickly extinguished and our Liberty Belle would have been repaired to continue her worthwhile mission.

The full statement can be found here.

The pilot who made the emergency landing in the B-17 was John Hess of Georgia. He flies for Delta Airlines.

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