The plane was carrying 13 people when it crashed. At least seven people were injured because of the crash. One person on the ground was injured as the plane skidded off the runway.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the plane crashed while trying to land at Bradley International at 10 a.m. The plane is a civilian registered aircraft.
“Then we heard all the rumbling and the thunder, and all the smoke comes up and we kind of figured it wasn’t good,” Brian Hamer, who lives less than a mile from the airport, told NBC News.
“In front of me, I see this big ball of orange fire, and I knew something happened,” another witness named Antonio Arreguin told NBC News. “The ball of fire was very big.”
Social media users posted videos of a large plume of smoke rising into the atmosphere at the crash site.
— News This Second (@NewsThisSecond) October 2, 2019
The Bradley International Airport has been hosting a show of World War II-era planes this week, with vintage aircraft arriving at the airport for a special event meant to honor WWII vets. Five vintage planes, including a P-40 Warhawk, a B-25 Liberator, a B-25 bomber, a P-51 Mustang fighter and the above-mentioned B-17, had been participating in the event, Sputnik reported.
The B-17 is one of the most mass-produced bomber aircraft in history, with over 12,700 units built in the years before and during World War II. The US Air Force used the plane extensively for its massive bombing raids against German and Japanese cities: over 640,000 tonnes of the 1.5 million tonnes of bombs dropped on Germany and occupied territories during the war were dropped by B-17s, Sputnik reported.
