B-17 Liberty Belle crashes in US - crew safe

[Pen Pusher]

Chicago Tribune

Brian

[MrAngry2]

Pretty devestating, especiall when you consider the personal value of her, Just glad the crew are safe.

[jimbob1194]

Good to hear the crew are safe, on another note though it's very sad news, such a beautiful machine!

James

[flygirl]

A great shame, glad crew are safe.

[XL391]

Very happy everyone's safe, some job the pilot did getting her down as well by the sounds of things.

Such a shame to see just how badly damaged she is though, very sad...

[Pat Murphy]

Glad they all got out but a real shame The Belle is no more

[RodMcKenzie]

Very thankful the crew escaped unscathed, but otherwise This is an aircraft I've had the privilege of climbing aboard, so I know what wonderful condition she was in, both inside and out - seeing her come to grief like this is downright painful...

[lanemiker]

Very sad indeed the loss of Liberty Belle. Deepest condolences to the Liberty Foundation at the loss of their beautiful B-17. So very glad that the crew was able to get out safely.

I last saw Liberty Belle when she paid a visit to Aurora Airport on 15 June 2009. My wife's Father was there and was going to go up with her son as a grandfather/grandson flight for Father's Day. Her Father was a ball turret gunner on a B-17 during the war and flew 35 missions out of Chelveston with the 305th BG. He never missed a chance to see the "Grand Lady of the Skies" as he often referred to the B-17 as. As it was, he didn't feel well that afternoon and decided not to go. Or was it that her Mom wouldn't let him go. Something like that. Her son did manage to go up that day in the Liberty Belle and wrote a nice article for his newspaper on his experience in the B-17. Here are some photos of the last time that I saw Liberty Belle.













Liberty Belle was also the last US based B-17 to pay a visit to the UK. The Liberty Foundation was able to bring her over for the 2008 Flying Legends Airshow at Duxford. From what I was told, it was great having her at Flying Legends that year flying with the France based B-17 "Pink Lady". The "Sally B" was down that year besieged with engine problems.

We sure will miss the Liberty Belle. Many thanks to the entire Liberty Foundation for all their tireless efforts in restoring this B-17 and operating her over the past years for all of us to enjoy. Thank you very much !!!

Our thoughts are with you...

Lance

[DamienB]

Well this won't buff out:

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=8187335

Desperately sad but delighted all the people on board are reported to be safe.

[F-86]

Glad that everyone got out ok, shame that the Liberty Belle is no longer. Don Brooks and crew did a wonderful job with their Fortress and even helped other operators such as providing Sally B with an engine in 2009 after some engine failures.

[Thumper]

Ouch, what a tragic end to such a beautiful plane. Superb effort by the pilot to get all the crew out safe

Lovely pictures Lanemiker

[Russ]

A terrible loss. Lovely looking aircraft, really enjoyed seeing it at Legends 2008.

[sylvancatharsis]

What a saddening loss of a piece of history, but wonderful news on the crew's escape.

[timuss]

Sad news glad the crew were unharmed, could have been a whole different outcome.

[F-86]

There are some more shots here, including a couple in the air clearly showing the fire.

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2011 ... 15/photos/

[foxfour]

A terrible shame about that beautiful aircraft and total respect to the pilots for getting it on the ground and getting everyone out. It's generally accepted that if you have an engine fire in flight you have 2 to 3 minutes maximum to get the aircraft on the ground and get out so they did fantastically well.

[Corsair]

What a tragic loss of a wonderful aircraft, really glad to hear the crew got out, big pat on the back for the pilots.
So sorry for the loss. Thanks for posting those great images Lance.
Guy

[aviationphoto]

So glad everyone is safe

[lanemiker]

There are some more shots here, including a couple in the air clearly showing the fire.

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2011 ... 15/photos/

Neil,

Thanks for the link from the Daily Herald. In looking at these photos, and some from a different source, it does not look like it was an engine fire, Take a close look at the inflight photo and the first one when the aircraft came to a stop after the crew got out. The fire seems to be aft of the Number 2 engine and outboard of the turbosupercharger, which probably wasn't operating anyway. It will be interesting to see what the NTSB comes up with for a cause of the fire.

These images were sourced from the public domain









Seeing these images seems all to surreal. Terrible couple of weeks for the aviation community...

Lance

[XL391]

Heartbreaking pictures...

[lanemiker]

Going through some airshow files on the portable hard drive today, I found these photos I took of the Liberty Belle taken at the 2005 Thunder Over Michigan airshow. That year we had eight B-17's flying at Thunder.









Great memories of a great aircraft. She will be missed.

Lance

[Russ]

Does anyone know how many flying B-17's there are left in the US now?

[stuart n]

Does anyone know how many flying B-17's there are left in the US now?

Try this website Russ:

http://bomberflight.info/links_pages/links_B-17_airworthy.htm

[iainpeden]

Thank goodness all are safe, but it maybe gives support to CAA rules about paying passengers in warbirds.

On a lighter note, given the miracles that restorers work nowaday - almost building an aircraft from a single original wheel nut - I reckon the chances of a return to flight are at least 50/50 (or at least static display) given the amount of structure which survived

[lanemiker]

Does anyone know how many flying B-17's there are left in the US now?

Russ,

There are currently nine B-17's (now) that are currently operated and flying in the US.

Chuckie
Sentimental Journey
Memphis Belle (movie)
Nine-0-Nine
Texas Raiders
Thunderbird
Aluminum Overcast
Yankee Lady
Fuddy Duddy

The other three are airworthy, but are not currently flying to my knowledge.

Boeing Bee
Evergreen International
Miss Angela

Lance