HARTFORD, Conn. — At least seven people were killed and seven were injured when a World War II-era bomber crashed shortly after taking off from Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks Wednesday morning, officials said.
The B-17G bomber crashed shortly before 10 a.m. local time, bursting into flames and sending up a large plume of smoke that could be seen for miles. Airport Administrator Kevin Dillon said the aircraft crashed into an airport building as it was trying to make an emergency landing.
State public safety Commissioner James Rovella would not say how many were killed. “It’s far too early to say,” he said during a briefing at the Sheraton hotel at the airport.
He confirmed there were 10 passengers and three crew members on the bomber. One person on the ground was injured when the airplane struck a small building and tanks that hold de-icing fluid.
The airplane was largely consumed by the fire, which was fed by the aircraft’s fuel. The left wing and tail appear to be all that remains of the airplane. The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a “go team” to the airport to investigate the crash. The Connecticut State Police, the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Homeland Security also are investigating.
The bomber was owned by the Collings Foundation, a Massachusetts nonprofit that restores World War II-era aircraft. The aircraft travel the county and are open for people to tour. The Bradley stop was the organization’s third in Connecticut in the past month.
The organization also offers 30- to 40-minute flight experiences on its aircraft. It was departing on one of those flights when the crash occurred. It was one of five planes, two fighter planes and three bombers, that were at the airport this week for tours and flights through the organization’s Wings of Freedom Tour. The B-17 was one of about 10 in the country considered to be airworthy.
Sources told the Hartford Courant that at least seven people were killed in the crash and authorities fear the number will go higher. It took hours for rescuers to reach the front of the airplane where the pilot and co-pilot were seated.
“I got a call from the commissioner a while ago and he said, ‘It looks pretty bad,’” Lamont said at the briefing. “And coming over here as fast as we can, we saw the fire engines and the responders and the red lights, the last of the smoke plumes … it was giving us a sense of what we were confronting.”
Lamont said officials would get information to victims’ family members as soon as possible.
“Right now, my heart really goes out to the families who are waiting,” Lamont said. “We’re going to give them the best information we can, as soon as we can in an honest way.”
Three of the six victims taken to Hartford Hospital are in critical condition, said Dr. Jonathan Gates, chief of the hospital’s trauma department, in a separate news conference. Two have moderate injuries, and one was described as “minimally injured.” Two of the injured were transferred to Bridgeport Hospital for treatment of burns, officials said. Other passengers were taken to Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford.
The 103rd Airlift Wing of the Connecticut Air National Guard said one of its members was a passenger on the flight. The guard member was injured and taken to Hartford Hospital, said Maj. Gen. Francis Evon, the adjutant general of the Connecticut National Guard. Other guard members joined in the rescue effort, he said.
According to sources familiar with the investigation, two other passengers were members of the Simsbury Volunteer Fire Department.
The crash halted all flights at the airport for several hours. The airport authority said flights resumed about 1:45 p.m. Travelers were urged to check with their airlines about the status of their flights.
Kevin Dillon, executive director of the Connecticut Airport Authority, said at a news conference that the plane took off about 9:45 a.m. and five minutes later, pilot called the tower and said he was having a problem.
“We did observe that the aircraft was not getting any altitude,” Dillon said.
The airplane was cleared to land on the runway it had taken off from when the crash occurred. The bomber struck the shed and tanks at the de-icing facility, Dillon said.
Laura Nolan said she saw that something was amiss as the plane came in for a landing. She was driving east on Route 20 at the time, and she saw the World War II-era plane flying unusually low.
“He was treetop level when I saw him,” Nolan said. “And one of the engines wasn’t spinning.”
As the plane passed by, Nolan said, the roar was “thunderous.”
And then, the plane crashed.
“I saw the smoke in the rearview mirror,” Nolan said. The smoke was dark black, she said.
Nolan, a former Granby paramedic, went to the airport to offer help to the first responders. She was sent away, though, and by about 11 a.m. the other waiting ambulances had been sent away as well, she said.
She saw emergency vehicles from across the region, including from the Ambulance Service of Manchester, Hartford-based American Medical Response, Pratt and Whitney Fire Department and Suffield Fire Department. Nolan said she also saw a Life Star helicopter land near the crash site.
“The amount of people that were flooding in here was ridiculous,” Nolan said.
According to audio transmissions of the moments before the crash, a pilot said he’d “like to return to the field.”
The controller said, “What’s the reason for coming back?”
“Number 4 engine, we’d like to return and blow it out.”
“You can proceed to runway 6 and you said you need an immediate landing?”
“When you get a chance yeah.”
“I just want to make sure because we have air traffic coming in can you go or do you need to be on the ground right now?”
The pilot clarified that he needed to land and the controller directed air traffic away from the airport.
After the crash, the controller calmly said, “Bradley airport is closed for an aircraft incident.”
Angela Fletcher, who lives about a half-mile from the airport, said she saw the plane fly close to her house.
“It sounded like an 18-wheeler coming down the street and then it got louder. Like so loud, it was vibrating things in the house. I looked out the window, and I saw this giant old plane come over the house that was very close, like oddly close to the house … “ she said.
“And then you heard like a pop pop. Almost like it was (the) engine. The engine was failing. And then it just continued over. So I didn’t think too much of it. And then I heard all the sirens but it was dangerously close,” Fletcher said.
The Collings Foundation did not provide details on the crash but released a statement: “Our thoughts and prayers are with those who were on that flight and we will be forever grateful to the heroic efforts of the first responders at Bradley. The Collings Foundation flight team is fully cooperating with officials to determine the cause of the crash of the B-17 Flying Fortress and will comment further when details become known.”
Numerous fire departments from the area were called to the scene, causing area towns to scramble to line up coverage. At least two dozen emergency vehicles were at the crash site.
The crash impacted commercial passengers, delaying and canceling flights.
At the Days Inn on Ella Grasso Turnpike, Assistant Manager Gaitri Lall said that 15 to 20 people had returned to the hotel by early afternoon, because of flight delays and cancellations.
Staff at the Candlewood Suites next door said they’d seen nearly 10 guests return. A handful waited in the front lobby of the hotel until their new rooms were ready.
David and Sherrill Taylor, of Tampa, Fla., said they were standing in a rental car parking lot near the airport when they saw the World War II-era plane pass overhead.
“It was very, very low (and) it was making a lot of noises,” Sherrill Taylor said.
She said the engine was making “banging” sounds. David Taylor called it “clacking.”
“It sounded like the engine was surging,” David Taylor said. “There was a funny clacking.”
The Taylors had planned to leave Bradley Airport at about 1 p.m. Wednesday, but their flight has been pushed to Thursday afternoon.
Some passengers have even longer delays.
Sally Shorr, of Portland, Ore., was scheduled to fly home at 1:50 p.m. Wednesday. Now, she has to wait until Friday morning, and will have a two-legged flight instead of a direct flight.
For all three passengers, the airlines didn’t offer to pay for their unexpected nights of accommodation. But they said they understood why.
“It was beyond their control,” Sherrill Taylor said.
The B-17G bomber was built in 1944. The Collings Foundation bought the B-17 in 1986 and restored it to from a fire bomber its World War II configuration, painting it in the image of the Nine-O-Nine, a bomber that flew in 140 combat missions in Europe. The plane had a minor crash a year later an airshow outside of Pittsburgh, rolling off the end of a runway and smashing through a chain link fence and “roared down a 100-foot ravine to a thundering stop,” according to the Collings Foundation website. The plane suffered significant damage and there were injuries but no fatalities.
The plane had another minor incident during a tour stop in Nebraska in 1995 when part of its landing gear would not lock in place. An emergency landing took place at a nearby Iowa airport where the plane touched down on one wheel. As the plane slowed to a halt, its wing dragged for about 700 feet, resulting in minor damage, according a newsletter from a World War II veterans group.
The most recent fatal crash of a vintage war plane happened in Fredericksburg, Texas, in November 2018. The pilot and a passenger in a P-51D Mustang fighter aircraft were killed when the plane, which had just participated in a flyby, crashed into a nearby parking lot.
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(Hartford Courant staff writers Steven Goode, Nicholas Rondinone, Emily Brindley, Kassi Jackson, Dave Altimari, David Owens, Russell Blair and Rebecca Lurye contributed to this report.)
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