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Aircraft 42-37789
Aircraft: B-17G 544th BS 42-37789 SU*H. The a/c was scrubbed for the 24 April 1944 mission to Oberpfaffenhofen; the plane was test flown later that day by Nuttall; “Lt. Col. Nuttall, 2nd Lt. Alfred E. Cole (CP), and 2nd Lt. Harold F. Gantert (N) (& Charles Anderson RO) were flying [on 4/24/44] when their plane shed part of a wing as they were approaching the runway to land. No one was injured in the accident, but the possibilities were enormous. A siphoning [leaking] wing tank and a flare back as Col. Nuttall cut the throttles which set fire to the escaping gas causing a terrific explosion were the contributing causes to the crash. The portion of the wing dropped off when the plane was still about 15 feet off the ground as the explosion occurred, the ship dropped solidly to the runway and careened off to the left onto the grass where it tipped to the side minus the wing portion and caught fire. The crew abandoned ship in a hurry and in spite of the efforts of fire fighters, the plane was almost entirely consumed.” 544th BS History. The aircraft was salvaged 25 April 1944.
Source: Robert Bletscher, 2011.
Bletscher: "I had sent someone to copy the records, but unfortunately they were too big to be copied on a regular scanner. The Agency Chief at the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell AFB, in Alabama, decided that they were records that should be preserved, and as a result had his department take care of them."
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- Thursday 3 February 2011
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- Thursday 3 February 2011
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- 241.jpg
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