Bomber Crashes in Chicago Outskirts
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Contact photographer Danny Fritsche
What: B-17 bomber (Boeing B-17G-105-VE Flying Fortress)
Where: Chicago
When: June 13, 2011, 09:30
Who: 7 aboard
Why: A working B-17 bomber which had been in a $3.5 million dollar restoration (Tim Reilly Vintage Aircraft conservators) for fourteen years, took off from Aurora Municipal Airport on a test flight—and caught fire. John Hess, the pilot, made an emergency landing in a cornfield.
Witnesses described a “cracking noise” before the plane landed in the field, streaming black smoke. Fire fighters were impeded by the muddy cornfield, and the plane burned.
This weekend the plane was grounded with a leak.
No one sustained serious injury although one person did have a minor head injury.
The plane was described as a “national treasure,” and one of a dozen B-17s still operable.