Vintage World War II Plane Crashes Outside Chicago (B-17)

WKRC ^ | 6/13/2011 | WKRC

[TSgt]

A WWII bomber plane crashed and caught fire near Chicago Monday morning. No one was injured.

Seven people were onboard the plane. Officials say they all walked away from the crash.

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was at airport in Oswego, Illinois, to mark the 67th anniversary of D-Day. The bomber was grounded over the weekend due to mechanical problems and took off from Sugar Grove Airport at 9:30 a.m. The Daily Herald profiled the plane and D-Day event over the weekend.

The restored B-17, called "Liberty Belle," is owned by Liberty Foundation. The plane was at Lunken Airport on June 19, 2010 where the public was invited to fly on it for a fee of $430.

[TSgt]

Glad they all walked away but what a loss of history...

[TSgt]

[US Navy Vet]

sad

[Stonewall Jackson]

FYI

[savedbygrace]

I’ve been inside “Liberty Belle”. Sadness.

[tcrlaf]

Oh no.....
This was a PRICELESS piece of history.

[hoagy62]

Oh no! There’s not that many of those beauties in flying condition anymore.

I had heard that at the upcoming Arlington (WA) Fly-in, the B-17 ‘Sentimental Journey’ will be there. I saw her once about 20 years ago at Felts Field in Spokane. Gorgeous aircraft.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Breaks my heart to have another beautiful warbird lost, but she took care of all aboard. The Fortress did her job of sacrificing herself for the crew. Sucks, but a happy ending nonetheless.

I still grieve when I see picutures of hundreds upon hundreds of B-17s and other aircraft disassembled for scrap after the war, with no thought of saving a few score for museums and posterity. I completely understand that people wanted nothing to do with the war or war machinery at the time, except practical things like jeeps to us on the farm. Still and all, such a shame we couldn’t have saved more for history’s sake.

[bcsco]

A WWII bomber plane crashed and caught fire near Chicago Monday morning.

It's one heck a lot closer to Aurora, or Naperville, than it is to Chicago, but I suppose one can't fault someone from Cincinnati for not knowing there's something other than Chicago that makes up Illinois...

[Nowhere Man]

What a loss. B-( IIRC, the Liberty Belle was at the Pittsburgh Air Show too.

[HiJinx]

Oh my...what a loss.

[Joe 6-pack]

"Seven people were onboard the plane. Officials say they all walked away from the crash."

Bringing her crew home safe, one last time :-(

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Dumb me. In my zeal I forgot to say HUGE KUDOS to the pilot for bringing the pland down with no casualties. Great job. Likely, he had hundreds of hours giving tours and taking that plane around the country. Still, those huge wings couldn’t have hurt, but the praise really goes all out to the pilot who did a fantastic job of bringing the pland down safely.

[elcid1970]

Yeah, it’s sad to watch a piece of history be lost to this generation and the generations to come. I’m 62 and read and saw footage about B-17’s all my life but I never actually laid eyes on one until 2002 at a local air show. And at that show, a Navy F4U Corsair crashed and burned, and the pilot was killed.

Then there was the “Kee Bird” B-29 that sat on the Greenland ice pack since 1947 and somebody completely restored it on site in 1995 and then it caught fire and burned while taxiing for takeoff.

It’s a crying shame. But the effort to remember has to go on. I guess they’ll salvage the engines off that B-17.

[gymbeau]

Me, too. What a tragedy (the crash, not the fact that I was in it, too!).
Cheers
Jim

[equaviator]

RIP Liberty Belle. Long live liberty!

[kalee]

So have I. sad

[Stonewall Jackson]

The Liberty Belle in happier times.

[Psycho_Bunny]

What a bummer....my girlfriend and I saw it at Boeing Field in April. It was gorgeous.

Glad no one was hurt.

[GreyFriar]

“Queens Die Proudly” William L. White, 1943. This is one of the best books ever published on the history of the 5th Air Force in the early days of WWII in the Pacific. An absolute MUST READ for any historian . .