The FAA has grounded 10 historic aircraft that a nonprofit group regularly used for public flights, including at several Southern California airports — such as Torrance’s Zamperini Field — after finding serious safety violations in the wake of an October crash that killed seven, though the organization said in a statement it has a “commitment to safety.”
The Federal Aviation Administration release a seven-page report last week that probed the Oct. 2 crash of the historic World War II-era B-17G bomber in Connecticut during an emergency landing; one of the crash’s victims was the pilot, also a Long Beach resident. The report said that evidence showed the Collings Foundation “lacked a safety culture” when operating the bomber, nicknamed the Flying Fortress.
Hunter Chaney, director of marketing for the foundation, said on Monday, March 31, that Collings was reviewing its options; but, Chaney added, the group was not allowed to comment on the FAA accident investigation or given a heads-up before the decision to ground the aircraft was made.
The crew chief for the Flying Fortress, whose duties included handling emergencies, told investigators he was “unaware of basic information concerning operations,” including the existence of a required safety management system and had received only on-the-job training, the report said.
Pilot Ernest McCauley, 75, meanwhile, apparently falsified inspection records, the report said. The report also added that continuing to allow the nonprofit to conduct flights would “adversely affect public safety.”
“Notable maintenance discrepancies existed with the B-17G, yet the Collings director of maintenance signed inspection records — dated as recently as Sept. 23, 2019 — indicating no findings of discrepancies,” the report read in part. “No records or evidence of the completion of periodic audits exist with regard to this aircraft.
“In addition, the pilot in command of the B-17G was also the director of maintenance,” the report added. “As a result, Collings did not have a (management) structure to ensure adequate oversight of his decisions to conduct passenger-carrying operations such as the Oct. 2 flight.
The foundation and its historic warbirds have been annual visitors to several Southern California airports, where they give what are known as “living history” flights to paying passengers.
Last spring, for instance, the B-17 visited John Wayne Airport in Orange County and Riverside Municipal Airport, in addition to Torrance Airport.
Shant Megerdichian, Torrance’s general services director, said Monday that any visit this year had yet to be confirmed by municipal officials, pending FAA action, but that it was later canceled anyway because of the ban on public events caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Chaney confirmed Monday that the foundation’s planned Southern California Wings of Freedom tour will “most likely” not happen this year.
“Through 30 years of passenger carrying operations, and until the Oct. 2, 2019, accident, the Wings of Freedom tour had never had an accident, injury or fatality,” Chaney wrote via email. “This record reflects a commitment to safety that has proudly set a standard among the warbird community for generations.”