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B-17 "Liberty Belle" goes down, burns, totally destroyed

Deimos Anomaly

Deimos Anomaly

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All those on board escaped without injury. But the Belle is gone. :(


http://www.timesunion.com/local/arti...es-1422389.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty...ng_Fortress%29

800px-B-17_Liberty_Belle.jpg


[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvHGJbfDX44[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Mi9WoQD_4[/yt]
 
Like many B-17s during WW2..the plane was a total loss, but the crew survived...

Parts of the wings and the engines probably will be used by other flying B-17s to keep them operational.
 
A historical tragedy. The only benefit from this is spare parts for the few remaining flyable 17s. There is one here at the Orange County airport that the 80+ year old owner built a museum around. He flies it himself to events around the country.
 
Well, I'm glad the crew is okay, but that is a real loss to History. I suppose that's the chance they take when they fly old aircraft like that, but it's still a shame.
 
Looking at pics I guess it didn't take much for the aircraft skin start buring (alumunium?) and then spread quickly?

I saw a documentary on a the recovery of a B-29 that had force landed in on a ice lake in the 50s. They got her airworthy (not with a tragedy, one worker developed a medical condition resulting in an evac but later died from complications), fitted new engines are were all set to go but an oil line rupted in the aft section and sprayed oil on to a heat and she just to burn. There was nothing they could do but sit and watch their hard work and 10s of 1000s of dollars go up in smoke.
 
Marc said:
Looking at pics I guess it didn't take much for the aircraft skin start buring (alumunium?) and then spread quickly?
Click to expand...

Fuel leak in one of the starboard engines spread to the rest of the fuel system, causing an explosion amidships. Apparently the leak had been a recent nagging problem that was never quite nailed down, but we'll see what the FAA rules on this. There could be a fine for the owner for flying a non-airworthy (again, due to the leak) plane.

Sheet aluminum doesn't burn under normal conditions. The damage to the wings you see were due to the explosion. Close up photos will show the parts of the plane that were fabric, which did burn. The paint on the aluminum parts appears to be charred, but did not burn.
 
^That definitely explains some things. I saw some of the helicopter footage from one of the local stations since the crash happened not too far from me. I couldn't believe how much of the fuselage was gone after the fire.
 
STR said:
Marc said:
Looking at pics I guess it didn't take much for the aircraft skin start buring (alumunium?) and then spread quickly?
Click to expand...

Fuel leak in one of the starboard engines spread to the rest of the fuel system, causing an explosion amidships. Apparently the leak had been a recent nagging problem that was never quite nailed down, but we'll see what the FAA rules on this. There could be a fine for the owner for flying a non-airworthy (again, due to the leak) plane.

Sheet aluminum doesn't burn under normal conditions. The damage to the wings you see were due to the explosion. Close up photos will show the parts of the plane that were fabric, which did burn. The paint on the aluminum parts appears to be charred, but did not burn.
Click to expand...
Sheet aluminum may not burn, but both it and the aluminum airframe will melt, and looking at the photos in this set, that's what seems to have happened in this fire. I'm not 100% certain, but I have my doubts that any fabric skin was used on the B-17, with the possible exception of that on the flaps and the vertical and horizontal stabilizers.

Also, I found a 10-minute video clip from a flight the plane made back in 2008, from Coatesville, PA to Albany:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea1Q3Cb16vg[/yt]
 
M'Sharak said:
STR said:
Marc said:
Looking at pics I guess it didn't take much for the aircraft skin start buring (alumunium?) and then spread quickly?
Click to expand...

Fuel leak in one of the starboard engines spread to the rest of the fuel system, causing an explosion amidships. Apparently the leak had been a recent nagging problem that was never quite nailed down, but we'll see what the FAA rules on this. There could be a fine for the owner for flying a non-airworthy (again, due to the leak) plane.

Sheet aluminum doesn't burn under normal conditions. The damage to the wings you see were due to the explosion. Close up photos will show the parts of the plane that were fabric, which did burn. The paint on the aluminum parts appears to be charred, but did not burn.
Click to expand...
Sheet aluminum may not burn, but both it and the aluminum airframe will melt, and looking at the photos in this set, that's what seems to have happened in this fire. I'm not 100% certain, but I have my doubts that any fabric skin was used on the B-17, with the possible exception of that on the flaps and the vertical and horizontal stabilizers.

Also, I found a 10-minute video clip from a flight the plane made back in 2008, from Coatesville, PA to Albany:
Click to expand...

Think the second photo is the worst - you can see she was succesfully but there's nothing anyone can do but what her burn :(

As for the comment about aluminum burn, I can remember a documentary on aviation I saw about 15 years ago on great aircraft and one of them was the Avro Shackelton of which all but a few kept for presevation were being scrapped - one of which was shown in the program having been dragged onto a rubbish dump and burnt.
 
^ One of the early reports I read said that the pilot had done a really good job of getting the plane down, shooting a gap between a row of trees and a (relay?) tower to land in time for everyone to get out safely. Once done, though, yeah - it was far too involved for them to do anything but stand clear and watch it burn down. Really sad, because there just aren't many of these flying any more.
 
Here is an overhead shot after the fire was put out and you can see there wasn't much left of the fuselage. It's like someone erased the parts between the wings and tail.

62347008.jpg


The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the NTSB is looking into maintenance performed on the plane over the weekend, as several people who were supposed to fly in the plane this weekend said their trips were cancelled because of maintenance problems.
 
^ I've also seen mention of a right-side engine fuel leak they'd been trying to chase down over the preceding day(s) and that the decision to go ahead and fly could end up having repercussions for the pilot.
 
Even if there are repercussions, I'm sure nothing is worse than losing a historic plane like this one. :(
 
You sure it was a RH engine fuel leak? One of the videos I saw was talking to the pilot (or some other crew?), and he said there was a leak between the #1 and #2 nacelles, which are on the left. The damage in the picture above looks to be worse on the LH side as well.

*edit*
There's a statement from the Liberty Belle Foundation's chief pilot on their website, correcting a lot of misinformation:
http://www.libertyfoundation.org/index.html
It seems that the fire was on the left.

As for anybody hinting at the crew taking chances due to the maintenance issues they had, I'd just like to say that military planes, especially vintage ones like this, require a *huge* amount of maintenance and upkeep just to keep them flying. Every flight hour requires multiple maintenance hours (>30 in the case of the F-22, tho the gov't wants it <12).
 
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