Page 14 - CLT061520

14 ¦ JUNE 15, 2020 NEWS

¦ From SURVIVORS on PAGE 13 repurposed several times until it
when facts and details become was sold for scrap in 1965.”
available.” The foundation acquired the
Meanwhile, the foundation said “The crash was the plane in the 1980s. The FAA lat-
it has suspended the Wings of result of the negligence, er issued a special airworthiness
Freedom Tour that featured the certificate for “limited” use, the
bomber that crashed. recklessness and callous complaint said.
indifference of the Collings
The complaint said the foun- Foundation and its agents,” On the day the plane took off for
dation was established in 1977, the last time, the crew immediate-
initially focusing on living his- said a complaint filed in ly told the passengers they could
tory experiences such as carriage Connecticut Superior Court get up and look around, according
and sleigh rides and antique car to the complaint. But then quickly
in Hartford.

rallies. The focus shifted to avia- after that, the crew chief instruct-
tion in the 1980s. The complaint ed the passengers to sit back down
said the foundation eventually ac- and buckle up. Eyewitnesses on
quired vintage aircraft valued at the ground reported hearing the
more than $30 million and a collection of military engines sputter and roar and seeing smoke. The pilot
vehicles worth more than $38 million. The military asked the control tower to return to the runway, in-
vehicles, called the Jacques Littlefield Collection, dicating engine trouble. But the plane hit the ground
were housed at the American Heritage Museum in before the runway, then veered off and hit vehicles
Stow. and fluid tanks in a deicing facility.
Tickets for short sightseeing flights on the World “The crash and subsequent explosion were vio-
War II bomber sold for $450 each, according to the lent. It ejected many of the passengers from where
complaint. The plaintiffs alleged that the founda- they were sitting and turned unsecured cargo into
tion loaded the plane with more passengers than dangerous projectiles,” the complaint said. “A fire
available seats, and that the seats that were available started immediately in the fuselage.”
lacked safe and functioning restraint belts. Some of The 208-page complaint includes 73 counts and
the passengers sat unbuckled on the floor. Some car- seeks compensatory and punitive damages, attorney
go was unsecured, the complaint said. fees and legal costs, plus injunctive relief against fur-
The plane was a B-17G, a “four engine heavy ther disposition of assets by the foundation.
bomber manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft ¦

Company in 1944 for the United States Army Air Katheryn Hayes Tucker is an Atlanta-based re-
Corps,” the complaint said. “Because it was built so porter covering legal news for the Daily Report
late in the war effort, it did not see combat and was and other ALM publications.

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