By: Timothy Kays
The fatal crash of a World War II era B-17 Flying Fortress on the morning of October 2 at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, was a tragedy on multiple fronts. The crash of the ‘Nine-O-Nine’, a vintage American Boeing B-17 heavy bomber owned by the Collings Foundation, a private non-profit educational foundation located in Stow, Massachusetts, claimed seven lives and injured eight others.
This vintage aircraft was famous for taking passengers on educational flights to teach the experience of the conditions endured by American airmen as they carried out bombing sorties in the European and Pacific Theaters during World War II. Three area men, Ed Likes, Marty Potts and Bill Priest, were privileged to fly aboard the Nine-O-Nine prior to her final mission. Bill Priest spoke of his experience aboard the airplane, and of the heartbreak surrounding the crash.
“I was invited by Ed Likes from Bryan, who is one of the one of the sponsors of the Collings Foundation, to ride on a B-17 on August 10 of last year,” Bill said. “He also invited Marty Potts, who he invited before, to go along with him. Marty’s ridden on that B-17 probably seven or eight times. The Flying Fortress was the Nine-O-Nine. It’s actually painted ‘Nine-O-Nine’ on the plane, and there’s a Revolutionary War soldier painted on there with I think a bomb with a telescope on it. This is a restored B-17. There was a B-17 Nine-O-Nine that was a well-known plane that was with a 91st Bomb Group, 323rd Squadron during World War II.”
“It completed 140 missions without an abort or the loss of a crewman. It was quite a plane. So the Nine-O-Nine got the nickname because that was the last three numbers of its serial number…909. The plane that we were on was restored at by the Collings Foundation. After they purchased it, they made it the Nine-O-Nine in honor of the plane that had flown before.”
Bill continued, “The plane that was restored, was an original B-17G that was built in Long Beach, California, as I recall, but it wasn’t delivered until the end of World War II…too late to go into combat. The plane that we flew on did air to sea rescues until 1952. Then it was reassigned as a specimen in ‘weapons effects testing’. That means that they subjected it to three nuclear explosions, and after they gave it a 13-year cool down period, they sold the plane for scrap for $269. Can you believe that?”
One chapter of the aircraft’s history was drawing to a close, but Bill explained that more chapters were in the offing. “Fortunately, that wasn’t the end of it,” he said, “…because Aircraft Specialties Company took the plane and restored it, and used it as a water bomber from 1977 to 1985, working on wildfires and things like that. And then the Collings Foundation purchased it in January of 1986, and restored it to the war time configuration.”
Recalling that day in August of 2018, Bill said, “We went to Lima, the Collings Foundation had the B-17, a B-24, a B-25 and a P-51 Mustang there. They tour about 110 cities a year, and we got on the B-17 at Lima. They gave us a safety orientation before we got on the plane, telling us not to put your hands in certain areas, to be careful your walk, you know, don’t get on the bomb bay doors because they won’t hold your weight. You know, all those kind of things that you need to know.”
“They wanted to make sure that we knew where to be in the plane. And we buckled in and took off from Lima, we went to Akron. The day was broken clouds at Lima, and we ended up being overcast in the Akron. The ride was a little bumpy there places. I had taken on video camera, and it jumbled in places because the plane ride was a little bumpy, but that’s just the way it was.”
Bill took notice of some of the things that a B-17 flight crew member would have to endure. “Some of the things that hit me about the plane ride was how little room there was inside,” he said. “You know, you see the movies, and it looks like there’s lots of room in inside these planes. And I think in World War II, they traveled with a crew of ten. You know, we had probably about 12 or 15 people in there, and boy I tell you, getting around and making it through for was a little tight. I can’t imagine if they’d had all the ammunition in there that they would normally carry on their loads.”
“It was probably easier, because you got younger people who were part of the flight crew. And for me, I carry a little extra weight than I used to, so getting through the plane to the front was a little challenging. I did go up into the front of the plane. That front cone is Plexiglas up there. It’s not bulletproof glass, it’s Plexiglas, and in order to get there, I had to go underneath the flight deck where the pilot and co-pilot were. You have to crawl through, and crawl up into it to get up in there. It gave me a real appreciation of what those flight crews, the people who were on there, really went through.”
Another thing Bill noticed was that the four huge Curtiss-Wright R-1820 Cyclone radial engines generated a lot of noise. “It was pretty loud,” he said. “Couldn’t have held a normal conversation. I could have yelled and people could have understood. I was I was hoping to interview some folks during that, but they would not have understand what the questions I was asking until unless I yelled at them, so that I didn’t do.”
The cross-state trip made a lasting impression on Bill. “Let me tell you about going on the plane, when I flew on it. I thought it was a real honor to be able to go on that, and to fly on that plane. I could imagine what other crews flew on typical B-17s, how cramped it was, and what they must have been thinking. We flew down closer to the ground during our flight; they probably flew at around 25,000 feet, so it was colder up there.”
“They had to have suits that were heated in order to get through what they were going through. They were big targets, and they never knew if they were going to make it back from another mission or not. To think about what those folks did, and be in harm’s way like they were, gave me a real appreciation for some of what they dealt with. They’re not comfortable planes. They weren’t built for comfort. There weren’t cushy seats. They were built for bombers. They were built for taking their payloads where they needed to go, and come back and there were no amenities on there like we all we would all be used to.”
Bill continued, “I got to meet the captain of the plane, the pilot, just before we took off, I didn’t get to talk to him, and he didn’t say too much. I asked him to do an interview, and he said he’d rather not. I was traveling with Ed Likes, and after we landed at Akron, he came over and he brought a log book along. He signed it for me and took a picture with him, so he was personable that way. But you know, he had 7,300 hours in a B-17. In the last 20 years he’s flown for Collings Foundation, as I understand it, he’s had more time in a B-17 than anybody in the United States today.”
“So I thought we were in good hands, but it’s a terrible tragedy to lose a plane like that, and to have that happen as people were trying to do the same thing. They were having that same kind of experience, understanding when you do something historical like that, you automatically put yourself in the same position as the other people who experienced that. I did the same thing, and it gives you a whole new appreciation of what they went through, but it’s an experience to go through…to hear the engines. I went up front watched the engines turn, looked out over the landscape as they could have easily have done the same.”
“Up front in the plane is where the navigator and the bombardier sat and be looking for his targets. They would be hoping to help keep freedom alive by doing what they were doing, and they were hoping to get back home safe and sound. The nice thing about the B-17 was if it had more armaments than a lot of other planes. So there’s so many reports of the B-17 taking hits during action and still being able to make it back in. They were a very sturdy plane.”
Reflecting on the events of October 2, Bill said, “It’s sad; I feel bad for the people who lost their lives in the accident. When you go on you sign a waiver, and you understand that you’re putting yourself at some risk, but anytime you fly, you do that. I didn’t feel I was putting myself at any more risk than normally when I’ve flown in other in other planes, and I certainly hope that this doesn’t keep them from continuing to do the mission that they do, to let people know what it was like and experience that on a first hand basis. You know, I’ve watched the news conference that was held by the NTSB, and they’ll be very thorough with this.”
“There have been some other incidents before. There all unique, and they will look at this and they’ll see if there are any recommendations that need to be made. I have learned through my reporting experience to wait until you hear the report. There’s a lot of things that people jump on quickly. I know in this particular incident that there was some issue with one plane engine because the pilot mentioned that to the control tower. But until the NTSB gives their report, I kind of hold back judgment, wait and see what happened, and let the experts get together and decide if something in particular needs to be done…and they seem to be pretty thorough.”
“The model that went down was a B-17G, of which there were different variations. Just like cars, they keep improving a certain model year after year. There were about 13,000 B-17s manufactured overall, almost all were made during the World War II. Aside from maybe 100, all of the B-17s were manufactured during World War II. About two-thirds of all the B-17s were B-17Gs. There are only nine that are still flying today, so it’s a rare plane to get a chance to fly in.”
Timothy can be reached at tim@thevillagereporter.com
