WW II B-17 crashes in cornfield / USA

[jimmy van drunen]

World War II bomber plane crashes in cornfield Outside Chicago;

http://montgomery.patch.com/articles/vi ... r-route-71

Grtz, Jimmy

[K2G]

Very sad news.

It was the "Liberty Bell" 44-85734 N390TH. The one that was at Duxford a few years ago.
http://www.examiner.com/general-aviatio ... -municipal

Hans

[Thermal]

This is soo soo sad

Click here for a beautifull internal detailed 360 view of this bird.

[michel N]

The communication(posted on Liveatc.net) between the tower, the B-17 and the P-40 was quite chaotic. After the pilot of the P-40 started yelling "you're on fire!" the tower didn't know who was on fire, or who was yelling. But his warnings might be one of the reasons the B-17 crew managed to make a succesful crash-landing. Anyway, a pity for a nice aircraft, but the crews survival is of course great news.

[larrythechief]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... board.html

[Kleintje Pils]

More photo's, including some of the inflight fire:

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2011 ... 915/photos

[Aviaphotos]

The B-17 made a succesfull landing (so no crash!!) in the cornfield, but was consumed by fire afterwards.
Also, the P-40 was well ahead of the B-17. The chaseplane was a T-6 Texan, which reported the fire.

Statement of the Liberty Foundation, including pictures of just after the landing: http://www.libertyfoundation.org/index.html

Regards,

Pim

[toppiero]

And some sadder is that the original Liberty Belle suffered exactly the same fate

42-30096 (385th BG, 549th BS, 'Liberty Belle') lost due to accidental on-board fire Nov 30, 1943. Crashed near Penlan Hall, Wake's Colne close to a base at Wormingford. Four crew were lost. MACR 4403

Source: http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1942_2.html