FWIW, the Lone Star Flight Museum’s B-17 just rumbled overhead. Probably something to do with the air show going on this weekend. They are loud, and big multi engine piston props sound like nothing else in the sky.
I had thought they might have been grounded because of the Connecticut accident. Guess not.
I wonder what the climb performance is on 2 engines. Clearly the base leg didn’t go well. Given the path of the flight it looks like the pilot was cutting it short to make the runway.
The NTSB docket is here:
https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket?ProjectID=100356
It makes for interesting (terrifying, horrifying?) reading. The survivor statements describe how passengers were told not to tighten or adjust the seatbelts because they were too difficult to un-cinch. So nobody but the pilots were belted. There was no communication from the crew regarding safety and evacuation and no guidance during the approach to prepare for a crash landing.
One survivor describes how the seatbelts of the passengers next to him broke just as his did the same. Another passenger mentions the last thing he remembered was trying to hold his seatbelt together as he couldn’t get it to latch.
I am not enough of a mechanic type to quite understand the discussion of the engines and magnetos, but it sounds as if there was some sloppy work done there, too, that resulted in one of the magnetos on the #4 engine shorting out.
One thing I suspected and the report seems to confirm is that the power configuration (two engines producing full power on the left side and one feathered and another producing only partial power on the right) was a major factor in the accident.
Everything I have read about B-17’s (and 24’s for that matter) was that they are a beast to keep straight when there is only power on one wing. I remember stories of other crew members having to relieve pilots or massage their legs as so much force was required on the rudders to keep the plane straight.
If the legs of a fit 20-year old might give out trying to push hard enough on the pedals a couple of 70+ year old pilots might have an even tougher time or not even realize how much force they will need to exert on the rudder to hold the plane straight. I don’t know if the pilots had ever experienced a situation like that. It’s not like there is a full motion B-17 simulator out there to practice engine out procedures. I can imagine that when they brought power up on the left side engines it simply overwhelmed them and pulled the aircraft to the right.
No real way to prove or disprove that the pilots were physically overwhelmed but the report does mention that in that situation and airspeed, with two engines on the same side out, the aircraft would have been right at the edge of controllability and the situation would have become worse as it slowed on the approach. Trying to save the landing only worsened the situation and led to the uncontrolled right turn and crash.
I love these old aircraft and believe they should be on the flight line with the sounds and smells, but I’d be surprised if they are allowed to continue much longer, at least with passengers. The Collins Foundation is going to be (properly) paying out a lot of money to the victims and survivors for their lackadaisical approach to safety and the FAA (much like after the Boeing MAX issues) is going to be coming down hard on all operators since they don’t exactly come out of this looking very good either.