B-25 Down in US

[Eric Mc]

It looks like the B-25 that was ferried by carrier a few weeks ago made an emergency landing in California a couple of days ago. The aircraft is quite badly damaged but there were only two minor injuries to those on board -





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WLvFxM7fm4

[normalbloke]

That’s sad to see, but happy no serious injuries.

[The Brummie]

Reported that both engines failed, the pilot tried to put her down in an open field, pulled that off only to hit a drainage ditch which ripped off the engines!!

Such a shame however no casualties is probably the most important thing.

[Ayahuasca]

No doubt she will be restored. Good piloting to get her down with no serious injuries.

[Eric Mc]

It apparently made a forced landing back in 1982 and was restored from that incident - so we may see it back in the air.

[aeropilot]

Ayahuasca said:

No doubt she will be restored. Good piloting to get her down with no serious injuries.

Fuselage is very rippled, so likely will be a parts donor to other B-25 projects.

Yes, they did a excellent job of doing an immediate 90 turn to starboard to drop down into that field. If the engines had run on another min or so, they would have been over the built up area on the approach to Stockton airport and likely ended up down in a residential area, or possibly the river which runs close to parallel with the approach to Stockton. Being so close to the airport they may well have already got some flap applied, and only needed a bit of extra hand cranking to get more in the short time they before impact. Report say the gear was up as per textbook, but again, that close to Stockton, I would have expected then to have already had the gear down......and with no power to get it back up.....?

The question to be asked now though, is did they cock up on the fuel load they had and simply ran out of fuel for both engines to have quit at the same time, or some mechanical issue with the fuel/tank transfer system?

Striking similarities with the 2nd Blenheim crash?