Seven dead after Stow foundation's airplane crashes in Connecticut
Courtesy | IAFF Local S15
A B-17 aircraft crashed at Bradley International Airport in 2019.
A vintage military aircraft owned by the Collings Foundation in Stow crashed at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut on Wednesday morning, killing seven, according to reports.
Officials said seven more were injured, according to The Hartford Courant. The National Transportation Safety Board said later Wednesday it was investigating the cause.
The Collings Foundation also runs the American Heritage Museum in Stow, which opened in May with dozens of military vehicles and other artifacts.
The Collings Foundation runs the Wings of Freedom tour spanning the country each year, with a stop at Worcester Regional Airport on Sept. 20, 21 and 22. Bradley, an airport in Windsor Locks, Conn., was hosting the latest stop on the tour.
Bradley closed for roughly two hours while a fire and rescue operation was underway, reopening by just before 2 p.m.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane was a vintage Boeing B-17 attempting to land at Bradley. Images on social media showed black smoke rising from an area near the airport terminal.
Bob and Caroline Collings, the namesakes for the Collings Foundation, began collecting rare automobiles around four decades ago, and soon after, antique aircraft that they had fully restored to working condition. The foundation has held the Wings of Freedom Tour for the past 30 years.
At one of those shows the couple met Jacques Littlefield, whose collection of more than 300 military tanks is said to be the world’s largest private collection of its kind. The foundation secured Littlefield's collection after his death in 2009, which eventually lead to the opening of the American Heritage Museum.
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