Pilot’s Decision to Lower Landing Gear with Crippled Engines Contributed to Fatal B-17 Crash at Bradley International Airport, NTSB Finds

At the first sign of engine problems, the pilot of the World War-era B-17 bomber radioed to the Bradley International Airport control tower to say he was circling back for an emergency landing. But some 600 feet above the ground and more than 2.7 miles away from runway 6, the pilot made a fateful decision to lower the landing gear.

According to the final report of the National Transportation Safety Board, this caused the plane to slow down and left little room to maneuver. The plane clipped the approach lights some 1,000 feet before the runway, crashed 500 feet before the runway, and skidded into a deicing tank where it burst into flames.

This combination of engine problems and pilot error with the vintage aircraft contributed to the Oct. 2, 2019 crash that killed seven people, including the pilot and co-pilot and five of 10 passengers. The plane, owned by the Collings Foundation, was part of a “living history experience,” where passengers would pay for the experience of flying in an authentic WWII era bomber.

The probable cause of the crash was a combination of the pilot failing to manage the plane’s configuration and speed, and inadequate maintenance that caused the plane’s number 3 and 4 engines to lose power.

The report on the 18-month investigation was released to the press on Tuesday. It cited several issues for the future of such flights, including a new regulatory framework for such flights including over maintenance, management policies and procedures, increased Federal Aviation Administration oversight of the operations and safety management of history.

According to the report, the flight, the first scheduled for the day, had just taken off. The pilot had just raised the landing gear, and the flight engineer told the 10 passengers they were allowed to unfasten their seatbelts and were free to walk around the plane.

Seconds later, the cockpit reported to the tower that it needed to make an emergency landing because of a “rough magneto” in one of the engines.

With the plane at 600 feet and no longer climbing, the passengers were told to return to their seats and buckle up.

The pilot shut down engine 4, which was running rough and experiencing loss of power, and increased power to engine 3.

An examination of engine 3 afterward showed the sparkplugs were worn, which reduced the amount of thrust available. “The pilot likely did not recognize, or recognized too late, the extent of the loss of engine power on the plane’s right side,” the report notes.

On the return to the airport, the plane was travelling at an estimated 100 mph, below the recommended 120 mph needed to control descent. Lowering the landing gear contributed to the plane being too slow.

When it made its final approach, it was 150 feet off the ground and had 4/10s of a mile to go to the runway. About 1,000 feet from the runway, it clipped the runways 6 approach lights and then crashed. The plane skidded into a de-icing tank and burst into flames.

An NTSB airplane performance study showed the B-17 could likely have flown over the approach lights and landed on the runway if the landing gear had not been lowered and the plane was able to maintain a speed of 120 mph.

Killed were the pilot: Ernest McCauley, 75, of Long Beach, California and copilot Michael Foster, 71, of Jacksonville, Florida, and passengers James Roberts, 48, of Ludlow; David Broderick, 56, of West Springfield; Gary Mazzone, 66, of Broad Brook, Connecticut; Robert Riddell, 59, of East Granby, Connecticut and Robert Rubner, 64, of Tolland, Connecticut.

McCauley had logged 14,500 hours in the air as a pilot, with roughly half that as a B-17 pilot. Foster had 22,000 hours in the air but only 23 hours on a B-17.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D- Connecticut, issued a statement calling for more FAA oversight into the vintage flights business. The report revealed “a series of failures” on the part of the Collings staff, he said.

“As highlighted by this report, present FAA regulations defer to the airplane’s owner on safety compliance, failing to provide even the most basic oversight of how closely the airplane owner is complying with FAA regulations,” he said.

“The FAA must immediately begin implementing the NTSB recommendations for the safety sake of all who fly in these living flight history experience airplanes.”

He said he will call for the implementation of the report’s recommendations, and will work with the senate’s Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to see that the changes are implemented.

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