B-17 groundlooped at Florennes Belgium

[Alain57]

On December 30th 1944 a B-17 groundlooped on landing at Florennes airfield Belgium. On board were a Maj Hayes and Major Chrichton ( both safe ) , they were researching the crash of Generaal Frederick W Castle on december 24 1944.Anyone an idea of the identity of this B-17 ?

[Leendert]

Alain,

B-17 was a/c 588 of (apparently) 487th BG.

See link http://www.criba.be/index2.php?optio...o_pdf=1&id=230 for full report.

Groet,

Leendert

[Alain57]

Hi Leendert,

As always thanks for the help.

Alain

[Ivo de Jong]

Alain,
The 487th BG did not have a 588 in its inventory.
The B-17 they 'commandeered' must have been a 'left behind' of another Group.
HTH,
Ivo

[Leendert]

Alain,

Unfortunately I couldn't find full serial of B-17 yet.
Did quick check of Freeman's Flying Fortress Story for B-17s with serial ending "588" (assuming it was jotted down correctly by Hayes/Crichton), but no match so far.

Groet,

Leendert

[Ivo de Jong]

Freeman lists for example 42-102588 as being assigned to the 8th AF (with no further details) on 29 April 1944. It survived the war and became an ASR B-17 in 1953.
Perhaps a likely candidate for such a mission?
Best regards
Ivo

[Leendert]

Ivo,

True, there were several B-17s that had a "588" serial. Assuming however that the B-17 was a write-off, no loss of this nature found so far for any of the "588" B-17s.

Something will come up, no doubt.

Groet,

Leendert

[shooshoobaby]

Leendert -
Besides the A/C Ivo listed ,
# 44-6588 401st BG was
Brand New , delivered Dec. 6, 44.
These are only 2 that seem to fit.
Also - unless other factors involved - like hitting something ,
a Ground Loop would not cause Major damage.
Mike

[Ivo de Jong]

Leendert,
I agree with Mike.
A 'ground loop' would definitely not be a total write off, unless the a/c hit something in the process.
Regards,
Ivo

[Leendert]

Gentlemen,

I see your point when you read the technical definition of "ground loop", as for example on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_loop_%28aviation%29

When you read Major Chrichton's report, the "A/C ran off runway, causing A/C to flip over on back and nose over, props tearing into ground. Pilot knocked out. We hanging by belts upside down. Slapped pilot's face; he came to. Smelled gasoline. Both jumped out and ran but airplane did not catch on fire"

It seems to me that this incident must have caused some degree of (major) damage, even if the word "ground loop" was perhaps not applied correctly in Alain's initial post about this accident.

Of course it would be nice if a picture shows up, bringing us back to the question what B-17 "588" was involved.

Regards,

Leendert