Piece Of Concrete Entered The Cockpit, Damaging The Airplane And Slightly Injuring The Co-Pilot

A B-24 Liberator was damaged and its co-pilot was slightly injured Thursday morning when a foreign object somehow blew into the cockpit of the airplane, hit the co-pilot on the hand, and then exited the aircraft during takeoff.

Television station KSAX reports that the incident occurred at about 1:30 p.m. local time. The pilot aborted the takeoff safely, according to FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford. The airplane suffered damage to one propeller and its fuselage and is being repaired. The damage was described by Hunter Chaney, spokesman for the Collings Foundation, which owns the plane, as largely "cosmetic."

The object was a piece of concrete patch on Runway 13R. Airport officials said the patch had been repaired. "We are just lucky it wasn’t a larger piece of concrete,” Chaney told the station.

The B-24 was participating in the National Wings of Freedom tour sponsored by The Collings Foundation. A spokesman for the City of Dallas, which owns the airport, said both runways were open as of Thursday afternoon.

(Image from file)

FMI: Original report