80 years later: A look back at the fiery emergency plane landing on West Tampa street
TAMPA, Fla. - Historian Dennis Cole can drive down a street in West Tampa that was the scene of a frightening event that happened 80 years ago.
It was back on May 19, 1944, when a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber – loaded with practice bombs and ammunition – made a fiery emergency landing on Abdella Street in West Tampa. It had just taken off from Drew Field, an Army Air Corps Training base where Tampa International Airport is now.
Something went wrong and the plane lost altitude.
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"They were coming through the trees. They went through power lines," said Cole.
An 80-year-old report on the incident reads, "the pilot tried to back slightly to miss the highest tree."
Decades later, a large oak tree remains on Abdella Street, but the original homes are gone.
"It could be the only living witness," said Cole, who can only rely on reports from officials and newspaper accounts as to what happened.
"The pilot looked up and missed the houses. He landed right down the middle of the street, but it’s a big airplane," said Cole.
According to reports, one of the plane's wings – which contained fuel tanks – clipped a tree and the plane came to rest next to a house.
"That house ended up catching fire," said Cole. "There was a family inside, including a baby. Someone ran and got the baby, who apparently slept through it."
Sadly, one of the bomber's nine crew members later died, but amazingly, no one on the ground was hurt.
"Eighty years ago. It's crazy to think something like that happened," said Mike Trumbull, who built a new house on Abdella Street four years ago.
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He had never heard about the day the "Flying Fortress" fell onto his street.
Cole said it could have been much worse.
"It could have come down 50 feet in that direction, and it would have taken out a row of houses," he said.
An investigation found a switch set in the wrong position caused the emergency landing. Cole said the crew did a good job, and the pilot likely saved many lives by keeping to the middle of the street.
"These guys were 18, 19, 20 years old. They were still in training," said Cole.
Many airmen were killed in training accidents. Those who did reach Europe to fight Germany faced great danger. Sixty percent of the operational airmen in World War II were either killed, wounded, or taken prisoner.
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