NTSB Releases Preliminary Report on B-17 Flight

The National Transportation Safety Board released the following preliminary report Thursday morning on the June 13 emergency landing of the Liberty Belle, a vintage B-17 bomber, in a field off Minkler Road near Oswego.

Timothy Sorensen, the agency's lead investigator on the incident, said a full report will be published within nine months.

Because this report was released overnight, NTSB officials were not immediately available for comment. Please check back later for more.

"On June 13, 2011, about 0947 central daylight time, a Boeing B-17G "Flying Fortress" airplane, N390TH, experienced an in-flight fire and emergency landing near Oswego, Illinois. One passenger sustained a minor injury. The remaining three crew members and three passengers were not injured. The airplane was substantially damaged as a result of the postimpact fire.

"The aircraft was registered to and operated by The Liberty Foundation under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a repositioning flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight, which was not operated on a flight plan. The flight originated from Aurora Municipal Airport (ARR), Aurora, Illinois at 0938.

The accident airplane departed with a North American SNJ-4, N299FM, as a flight of two airplanes. About six minutes after takeoff, the pilot of the SNJ airplane informed the flight crew of the B-17 that they had an in-flight fire. The SNJ pilot subsequently advised the B-17 crew to execute an emergency landing to a field.

The flight crew of the B-17 reported that they smelled smoke and were attempting to locate the source when they received a call from the pilot of the SNJ. They initially had shut off the electrical generators in an effort to isolate the problem. Once they determined that the fire was on the left wing, they elected to shut down the No. 2  engine and discharge the fire bottles. Upon receiving guidance from the SNJ pilot, the B-17 flight crew executed an emergency landing to a corn field about eight miles southeast of ARR.

The B-17 came to rest near the east end of the corn field. Emergency crews were hampered by the muddy field conditions, and the fire ultimately consumed the fuselage and inboard portion of both wings."