B-29 crash in Seattle

The B-29 crash in Seattle was an aviation disaster that occurred on Thursday, 18 February 1943 in the southern part of Seattle (Washington), when a Boeing XB-29 Superfortress aircraft (a prototype of the B-29 bomber) crashed into an industrial district during a training flight, killing, according to various data, from 32 to 34 people. It was the first and deadliest crash in the history of the B-29, and the deadliest air disaster in the United States during World War II.

Crash

On 18 February 1943, the second prototype was to make its ninth flight, in which the aircraft's performance was to be tested in a climb to an altitude of 25000 ft and data on engine cooling were to be obtained. At 12:09 the XB-29 took off from the factory airfield and began to climb, when at 12:17, while passing through 5000 ft, a fire broke out in engine No. 1 (the outer left). The burning engine was immediately shut down, after which the carbon dioxide fire extinguishers were activated, and Allen decided to turn around urgently and return to the airfield.

At that time a southerly wind of 5 kn was blowing in the region, so the decision was made to land on runway 13. However, the fire on the left wing was meanwhile growing rapidly. When developing the Wright R-3350-13 engines, the designers had tried to lighten the structure, for which they used magnesium alloys, but the problem with magnesium was that it is flammable, and burns at a very high temperature, so in this case the burning engine flared up so much that the fire began to destroy the wing structure. At 12:24 radio operator Harry Ralston transmitted to the ground that they were 4 mi northeast of the airfield at an altitude of 1200 ft, and just a minute later, at 12:25, an explosion was heard, and the controller even heard the radio operator say to the captain: Allen, better get this thing down in a hurry. The wing spar is burning badly. By that time the fire had made its way into the fuselage, and fragments of molten metal were falling to the ground, so when flying near Harborview Hospital (Harborview Hospital) three people tried to save themselves by jumping out with parachutes, but were killed, because due to the low altitude the parachutes did not have time to open.

The burning machine, going into an uncontrolled bank, broke power line wires, after which at 12:26 it crashed into the building of the "Frye" meat-packing plant (Frye Meat Packing Plant) in the southern part of Seattle and exploded, and the 5000 gallons (19 m³) of aviation fuel that spilled from the tanks caused an extensive fire. It was lunchtime, so most of the workers had left their workplaces at that time, which made it possible to avoid numerous casualties. Nevertheless, the crash killed all 11 crew members, 20 employees of the meat-packing plant and one of the firefighters, that is, 32 people in total. Some sources state that 30 or 34 people were killed.

In terms of scale, at that time it was the deadliest aircraft crash in the United States and remained so until the crash in New York on 29 May 1947 (43 killed). It is the deadliest air disaster in North America during World War II.