7 dead, 7 injured in crash of World War II bomber at Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport

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 in one of the worst plane crashes in state history, officials said.

The Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress, owned by the Collings Foundation of Stow, Mass., crashed shortly before 10 a.m., 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 said seven people died in the crash and six survived. The survivors have injuries ranging from minor to critical, he said.

“All but three of those families have been notified,” Rovella said during an evening briefing at the Sheraton hotel at Bradley. He said the victims would not be identified until Thursday at the earliest.

Family members seeking information about loved ones were asked to call the Connecticut State Police message center at 860-685-8190.

Rovella also said stories of heroism will emerge in the coming days. State troopers interviewed some survivors and he said someone on the plane kicked open a hatch, allowing some to escape the burning aircraft. Airport employees ran to the plane to help people get out of the burning airplane, he said.

Rovella said there were 10 passengers and three crew members on the bomber when it crashed. One person on the ground was injured when the airplane struck a small building and tanks that hold de-icing fluid. A firefighter also suffered minor injuries, he said.

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 remain of the airplane. A National Transportation Safety Board team arrived at the airport about 4 p.m. and has begun its investigation, said NTSB member Jennifer Homendy.

“Our mission is to determine what happened, why it happened and to prevent it from happening again,” she said. Robert Gretz, a senior aviation investigator for the NTSB, will lead the investigation, Homendy said.

Homendy said the NTSB is looking to the public for any information that could assist with its investigation and asked anyone with video, photos or other information to email [email protected].

A problem with the engine

Homendy said the preliminary investigation revealed that the B-17 took off from the airport’s runway 6 at about 9:45 a.m.

“At about 9:50 a.m. the crew contacted the tower and reported an issue with the airplane. We are looking into that report for further information,” she said. “We know that the crew circled back to runway 6 and attempted to land on runway 6.”

As it touched down, the airplane “impacted the instrument landing system stanchions, veered to the right, over a grassy area, over the taxiway and impacted the de-icing facility,” she said.

The NTSB will issue a preliminary report in seven to 10 days, Homendy said. Full investigation reports take 12 to 18 months to complete, she said.

The account matches one given earlier in the day by Dillon, who said the aircraft went out of control as it touched down and crashed into the de-icing facility. “We did observe that the aircraft was not getting any altitude,” Dillon said.

According to radio transmissions between the airplane and the tower, the pilot was reporting a problem with the No. 4 engine. The tower diverted other aircraft on approach to Bradley so that the B-17 could land.

Rovella said state police, the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Homeland Security are assisting the NTSB.

‘It looks pretty bad.’

Gov. Ned Lamont, shaken by the crash and death toll, spoke at a briefing Wednesday afternoon.

“I got a call from the commissioner a while ago and he said, ‘It looks pretty bad,’ ” Lamont said. “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.”

The bomber was owned by the The Collings Foundation, a Massachusetts nonprofit that restores World War II-era aircraft. The aircraft travel the country 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 the bombers for a $450 donation. 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.

The B-17 does not have traditional airliner seats, but makeshift seats with seat belts that passengers use to secure themselves for takeoff and landing. Once the plane is airborne, the passengers are able to walk through the aircraft to take photos, observe the pilots, crawl into the bombardier position in the nose of the aircraft, and visit the navigator station just below the flight deck. The passengers typically are seated in the mid-section of the fuselage, just above and behind the wings.

The four other aircraft Collings flew into Bradley on Monday remain at TAC Air on the airport’s east side. The visit by the Collings aircraft was not affiliated with the New England Air Museum, which is adjacent to the airport. “Although we are not connected to the Collings Foundation or these flights, the New England Air Museum and the Collings Foundation have a decades-long relationship and we are deeply saddened by today’s tragedy,” museum board President Scott E. Ashton said.

Connecticut Air National Guard member, Simsbury firefighters aboard

Three of the six victims taken to Hartford Hospital were in critical condition Wednesday, said Dr. Jonathan Gates, chief of the hospital’s trauma department, in a separate press 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.

Two other survivors are members of the Simsbury Volunteer Fire Department. In a Facebook post Wednesday evening, the department said the two firefighters were being treated at a local hospital and asked the public to keep them and their family members “in their thoughts.”

The crash halted all flights at the airport until 1:30 p.m., Dillon said. Travelers were urged to check with their airlines about the status of their flights.

A ‘ball of fire’ and a ‘thunderous roar’

Laura Nolan said she saw that something was amiss as the airplane was landing. She was driving east on Route 20 at the time, and she saw the bomber 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 rear-view 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.

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 and heard what sounded like an engine failing.

“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.

Nicole Soini, lives off Spring Street, said given how low the plane was flying, “I’m honestly surprised it made it this far before it touched the ground. … It wasn’t touching the trees, the trees didn’t move, but from a distance … It looked like it was touching them. It was that low and it just sounded like exactly what [Angela] said a big 18 wheeler and the engine was failing. You could hear it, it just sounded crazy. Sounded like it was dying, like the engine was, everything was just shutting off.”

Jim and Judy Guthrie said they didn’t see the plane, but their son saw it crash. He described it as “a ball of fire” that was rolling sideways.

The Collings Foundation did not provide details about the incident, but issued 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.”

The Collings B-17G bomber was built in 1944. The foundation bought it in 1986 and restored it from a firefighting airplane to its World War II configuration, painting it in the scheme 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 before it “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.

Numerous fire departments from in and around Windsor Locks 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.

Windsor town and state officials warned residents Wednesday that firefighting foam containing the hazardous chemical PFAS that was used to put out the fire at the crash site could potentially reach the Farmington River. Officials said they were worried that large amounts of chemical foam could reach sewer lines that would carry the pollutant down to the river.

State environmental officials said they were working to help deploy “containment apparatus, including vacuum trucks and containment booms” to prevent the PFAS foam from leaving the Bradley Airport crash area. “In particular, their efforts are focused on Rainbow Brook immediately adjacent to the airport,” according to a press release issued late Wednesday afternoon by state officials.

Delayed flights and cancellations

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, Florida, 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, Oregon, 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.

Courant staff writers Russell Blair and Rebecca Lurye contributed to this report.

David Owens can be reached at [email protected]. Nicholas Rondinone can be reached at [email protected]. Christine Dempsey can be reached at [email protected]. Dave Altimari can be reached at [email protected].