Crash of a Boeing B-17F-15-VE Flying Fortress in Boise: 5 killed

The sortie was an instrument check ride which included a blind takeoff and the student was taking his first check. The B-17 started to take off with the student under the hood and an instructor pilot of considerable experience was sitting in the right hand seat. The airplane ran 1,550 feet down the runway then turned off the runway under full power. It was straightened out momentarily while still under full power and swerved further to the right. Finally, after proceeding in a wide arc for approximately 3/10 of a mile from the runway, it hit the left wing of an airplane parked on the north side of the ramp (B-17F 42-29548). It swung further to the right, still under full power at an estimated speed of 70 or 80 miles an hour and proceeded south across the ramp. It collided with the transformers furnishing power to one of the main water wells on the field and smashed head-on into another parked plane (B-17F 42-2987). As the airplane came onto the ramp, witnesses stated that it was in a nose-down attitude under full power. The propellers were observed to strike the ground and the left tire blew out just before the airplane struck the wing of the first parked plane. At the time of the accident the airplane was travelling at an angle of approximately 45° or more with the original takeoff direction, and was swerving violently to the right. When 42-5751 collided head-on with 42-2987, both planes were badly damaged and fire started, without an explosion, which completely destroyed both planes. Four men in the airplanes were killed as a result of the crash; one man who was on the ramp was struck and killed by the airplane.
Crew:
S/Sgt Clifford J. Hawthorne,
1st Lt Richard Pease,
2nd Lt Elbert J. Williams Jr.,
2nd Lt William D. Workman.
The man killed on the ground was Sgt Thomas E. Lovelace.