Tire Touched Approach Light, No Damage To Storied Plane

One's heart tends to skip a beat when you see "B17" listed as the type on an FAA Preliminary Report, however minor that incident may have been... and that led to several emails to ANN Monday morning about one particular listing on the FAA web site.

According to the FAA, N93012 -- better known to warbird enthusiasts as 'Nine O Nine,' the Collings Foundation's beautifully restored 1945 Boeing B-17G -- struck approach lights on landing at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE) Saturday.

The report noted the plane incurred no damage, and no one was injured.

Reassured but still curious, ANN contacted the Collings Foundation directly. A representative with the group confirmed one of the B-17's landing gear tires struck a landing light, possibly related to wind shear on final. Not even the tire received any damage, the representative added.

'Nine O Nine' has seen far worse in her checkered past. The Foundation notes on its web site that while serial number 44-83575 was delivered too late to be part of the fighting in World War II, the air frame was subjected to no fewer than three nuclear blasts in 1952, as part of the US government's early efforts to measure damage caused by atomic bomb explosions.

Kinda makes a bent landing light seem all the more trivial, ya know?

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 93012        Make/Model: B17       Description: B-17 Flying Fortress
  Date: 02/07/2009     Time: 0000

  Event Type: Incident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: None

LOCATION
  City: FORT LAUDERDALE   State: FL   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  AIRCRAFT ON LANDING, STRUCK APPROACH LIGHTS, FORT LAUDERDALE, FL

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:   1     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Pass:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   

WEATHER: FXE SPECI 071445 08014KT 10SM SCT035 SCT050 A3048

OTHER DATA
  Activity: Unknown      Phase: Landing      Operation: OTHER

  FAA FSDO: SOUTH FLORIDA, FL  (SO19)             Entry date: 02/09/2009

FMI: www.collingsfoundation.org/tour_b-17g