8 years ago today my son and I were at an an airshow of World War 2-era airplanes at a local airport, including “Nine-O-Nine”, a B-17 bomber owned by the Collings Foundation1. I had wanted to take my son for a ride in this plane but the line was long and the cost prohibitive.
Tragically the end to Nine-O-Nine came about a year later at an airshow in Connecticut with 7 of 13 people on board (3 crew and 10 passengers) dying in the crash. The NTSB cited poor maintenance of the plane while it was on tour. I’m glad we never took that ride.
- Not the original Nine-O-Nine which was scrapped in 1945. Collings Foundation painted another B-17 to look like the original.