Three injured in B-25 off-airport landing.

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Archer
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Three injured in B-25 off-airport landing.

Post by Archer »

B-25 'Old Glory' developed a mechanical problem last Saturday and had to be landed in a field, resulting in significant damage and three injured occupants. See here: https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/thr ... h-landing/

GeeRam
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Re: Three injured in B-25 off-airport landing.

Post by GeeRam »

Crash happened at or just after 8pm, which seem quite late in the day to be flying a warbird, given it's just about dark by then in NorCal....?

It had flown up from Chino to Stockton that day, after recently getting back from its trip to Hawaii via transport on a USN carrier, for the 75th Anniversary of VJ Day on Hawaii.

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Archer
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Re: Three injured in B-25 off-airport landing.

Post by Archer »

Night VFR is a lot more common in the USofA. I'm not saying it's a great idea, but if the weather was VMC and they wanted to get home...

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Re: Three injured in B-25 off-airport landing.

Post by GeeRam »

Archer wrote:
Mon 21 Sep 2020, 3:04 pm
Night VFR is a lot more common in the USofA. I'm not saying it's a great idea, but if the weather was VMC and they wanted to get home...
They were already home, and from what I can gather they had just taken off from Stockton......?

The aircraft is based at nearby Stockton airport, and they had arrived back at Stockton from Chino earlier in the day.

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Archer
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Re: Three injured in B-25 off-airport landing.

Post by Archer »

My bad, didn't pick up on that one. I thought they were transiting to Stockton when they got into trouble. Note to self: read the previous posts and pay attention :wink:

GeeRam
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Re: Three injured in B-25 off-airport landing.

Post by GeeRam »

Archer wrote:
Mon 21 Sep 2020, 6:56 pm
My bad, didn't pick up on that one. I thought they were transiting to Stockton when they got into trouble. Note to self: read the previous posts and pay attention :wink:
Well, details are still a bit sketchy at the moment, as to whether they were on approach to Stockton or had departed from there again after arriving earlier) but from a contact I have that lives nearby and knows the group, it does appear that they had arrived back from Chino earlier in the day.
Other than that, all we know is that two of the crew are in hospital with non-life threatening injuries, and the B-25 is a write-off, although I'm sure that many parts and components can be removed from it and sold on to other B-25 projects (or Aero Trader)

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aviationanoraks
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Re: Three injured in B-25 off-airport landing.

Post by aviationanoraks »

Glad to hear the crew have not too serious injuries, could have been so much worse.
A terrible shame if the aircraft is a write off though, as I believe this B-25 is an actual combat veteran and not a TB-25 as quite a number of the flyers seem to be.

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Re: Three injured in B-25 off-airport landing.

Post by Mike »

The B-25 had been based at Albany, NY with a new owner for the past year or so

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Archer
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Re: Three injured in B-25 off-airport landing.

Post by Archer »

aviationanoraks wrote:
Tue 22 Sep 2020, 6:23 am
... as I believe this B-25 is an actual combat veteran and not a TB-25 as quite a number of the flyers seem to be.
It may well be a combat veteran, but it was still converted to TB-25N spec after returning to the USA in July 1945. See here: http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b25regis ... 28938.html

The conversion included the Hayes modification that used a different carburettor and inlet on the engines, as well as a collector ring exhaust for most of the inboard and upper cylinders, something that is still present on the aircraft today. Apart from that, the main changes were removal of weaponry, armour plating and such and mounting two seats in the area behind the cockpit where the top turret used to be. I guess most of those items were converted back to combat spec when the aircraft was restored.

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aviationanoraks
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Re: Three injured in B-25 off-airport landing.

Post by aviationanoraks »

Archer wrote:
Thu 24 Sep 2020, 1:24 pm
aviationanoraks wrote:
Tue 22 Sep 2020, 6:23 am
... as I believe this B-25 is an actual combat veteran and not a TB-25 as quite a number of the flyers seem to be.
It may well be a combat veteran, but it was still converted to TB-25N spec after returning to the USA in July 1945. See here: http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b25regis ... 28938.html

The conversion included the Hayes modification that used a different carburettor and inlet on the engines, as well as a collector ring exhaust for most of the inboard and upper cylinders, something that is still present on the aircraft today. Apart from that, the main changes were removal of weaponry, armour plating and such and mounting two seats in the area behind the cockpit where the top turret used to be. I guess most of those items were converted back to combat spec when the aircraft was restored.
Thanks for the link, quite a history and interesting reading.

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Re: Three injured in B-25 off-airport landing.

Post by ZRX61 »

GeeRam wrote:
Mon 21 Sep 2020, 3:42 pm
Archer wrote:
Mon 21 Sep 2020, 3:04 pm
Night VFR is a lot more common in the USofA. I'm not saying it's a great idea, but if the weather was VMC and they wanted to get home...
They were already home, and from what I can gather they had just taken off from Stockton......?

The aircraft is based at nearby Stockton airport, and they had arrived back at Stockton from Chino earlier in the day.
Flew from Chino to Vacaville then to Stockton. (or Stockton adjacent in this case)

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Re: Three injured in B-25 off-airport landing.

Post by GeeRam »

ZRX61 wrote:
Fri 25 Sep 2020, 3:05 am
GeeRam wrote:
Mon 21 Sep 2020, 3:42 pm
Archer wrote:
Mon 21 Sep 2020, 3:04 pm
Night VFR is a lot more common in the USofA. I'm not saying it's a great idea, but if the weather was VMC and they wanted to get home...
They were already home, and from what I can gather they had just taken off from Stockton......?

The aircraft is based at nearby Stockton airport, and they had arrived back at Stockton from Chino earlier in the day.
Flew from Chino to Vacaville then to Stockton. (or Stockton adjacent in this case)
Yes I know.

The first message I had from my mate who lives nearby omitted the info about the stop off at Vacaville...... :rolling_eyes:

I hope they didn't just run the tanks dry......

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