B-29 Tragedy.

[Azimech]

Originally Posted by Richard

I hope they'll never be able to go near an airplane restoration ever again, what a flock of amateurs, makes me sick.

-1

Come on! The only thing that went wrong was the APU. They've managed things most of us can only dream about!

I'm a hobby mechanic. Transformed my own car, that sort of jazz, often working in the snow on my back. I know how much work even replacing or repairing a car engine can be while your hands are numb. Doing so in such conditions is terrible. I'd want to drink a lot of alcohol just to keep me going, but working on a 50 year old a/c would be too much risk.

Yes, maybe it would've been smarter to ferry the B29 by other means, but this man apparently had his reasons. It almost worked, don't forget that. We wouldn't even got as far as replacing one engine. If you want to take off in a plane that has been stationary for 50 years in any country that has air traffic regulations, they'd tell you to completely strip the thing bare and restore it.

[Flanker35M]

S!

Not gonna say anything about the persons involved in the B29 incident. But as it was they worked in harsh and primitive conditions. This alone enforces one rule, to be extra careful! It is different to maintain/repair a plane in the hangar than out there in the snow. People tend to make shortcuts to get into warm, tiredness makes your concentration slip etc. So here they put in an APU, but not well enough, the fittings were makeshift and hurried it seems. Now it escalated when they taxied at high speed causing jolts to the already flimsy installation. Fuel tank broke loose, spilled on APU that was running STILL even pre-flight was done..So actually the slogan "Small errors cause big problems" is very true..Here it just escalated and caused loss of a plane and a life.

In projects like these hurry and too much eagerness is your enemy and backfires for sure. A leader of this kind of project should know and make assessments of the risk and put extra attention to the work, to be done even more carefull than usual, to avoid mistakes and minimize risks to both personnel and equipment.

[dduff442]

I'm sure they felt terrible after the plane went up in smoke. Still, if they didn't have the resources to lay out a decent runway on the ice then they didn't really have the resources to do the job. It's a pity to see such a beauty destroyed.

[swiss]

Originally Posted by Azimech

If you want to take off in a plane that has been stationary for 50 years in any country that has air traffic regulations, they'd tell you to completely strip the thing bare and restore it.

Right.
So was the basic plan anyway. Fly it out - to?
The FAA will to show you the finger if you ask for permission.

Maybe the next Greenland airport and disassemble it there?