The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Foundation pushes to keep war planes aloft
A week after its B17 Flying Fortress crashed, killing seven in Connecticut, the Collings Foundation sent an impassioned plea to aviation groups to contact the Federal Aviation Administration in support of the exemption that allows the warbirds to fly passengers for a fee.
Aviation websites and FAA documents indicate it wasn’t the first time the foundation has asked supporters to inundate the agency with positive letters about their Wings of Freedom program flying under a Living History Flight Experience exemption.
In 2012, foundation members were blunt about what they wanted supporters to tell the FAA, which had implemented a moratorium the previous year on any new exemptions.
“End the unnecessary moratorium immediately and process the Collings Foundations’ requests as expeditiously as possible,” a letter read sent by the foundation to aviation groups around the country instructing supporters on what to say to the FAA.
In 2009 and 2010, the foundation sought a change to the exemption that would allow the nonprofit to also charge passengers to fly in planes conducting aerial
maneuvers and allow passengers to “manipulate the controls” of the vintage warbirds. The suggested activities sparked a third FAA review of the program since its inception in 1996 and a fouryear moratorium on any new exemptions, according to FAA documents.
“The clear market orientation of these requests undermines arguments of a publicinterest goal in preserving unique historical aircraft,” the FAA wrote in a 2012 notice of a public meeting seeking comment on the exemptions as the moratorium continued.
The exemptions are under fire again with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal calling for an inquiry into the program.
The B17, one of 10 vintage aircraft approved by the FAA for the foundation to fly passengers for a donation or fee, had just taken off from Bradley Internal Airport the morning of Oct. 2 when pilot Ernest “Mac” McCauley reported that he needed to land as soon as possible due to an engine problem, reports said.
Minutes later, the B17 crashed about 1,000 yards short of the runway, struck stanchions, which guide airplanes in, and veered off to the right, eventually striking a deicing building before bursting into flames.
McCauley, 75, was believed by aviation enthusiasts to be the country’s most experienced B17 pilot with more than 7,000 hours of flight time behind the controls of the vintage warbird. He was killed in the crash along with his copilot and five passengers, including a retired Vernon police officer. The plane’s technician, five passengers and an airport employee suffered varying degrees of injuries.
The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to release a preliminary report on the crash in the coming days. As part of the yearlong final investigation, the LHFE exemptions will be examined by the NTSB and the FAA, officials said.
The plane was flying as part of Collings’ Wings of Freedom tour, which brings vintage aircraft to about 100 commercial airports nationwide each year. Visitors are allowed to check out the planes and can take a short ride on certain models such as the B17 for $450.
The Connecticut Airport Authority facilitated “security coordination” for the tour, which was arranged through airport “tenant” TAC Air, a national fuel wholesaler and aviation services provider.
This was the first time the Wings of Freedom tour was at Bradley since 2014. The tours had come to Bradley in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, according to Alisa Sisic, CAA manager of marketing. There are no future tour dates scheduled, she said.
Aside from the FAA approval, there are no other clearance steps or approval authority to allow the warbirds to fly in and out of Bradley because the event was held on "leased" property, Sisic said.
"Also, we can not discriminate against a particular type of aircraft," she added.
Turbulent relationship
Collings approached the FAA with the idea for the special exemption in 1996 after restoring the B17 Flying Fortress to match the Nine0Nine, which flew 140 combat missions during World War II. Collings was granted the first exemption in the country allowing a foundation or museum to fly passengers for a fee or donation under specific restrictions that don’t require the same regulations as commercial aircraft.
Since then, FAA documents and Collings Foundation letters to supporters show the organization and the agency have tendered a tense but cordial relationship. Foundation Executive Director Rob Collings has questioned the need for certain restrictions and has sought public support when their amendments are stalled or denied.
In 2010, Rob Collings repeatedly sent the agency letters highlighting what he perceived to be misinterpretations of its own exemption policy and said the stipulations never prohibited the activities he was now seeking to include.
“Passengers are prohibited from manipulating the aircraft controls when the aircraft is operated under the LHFE exemption and no aerobatics may be performed in the aircraft while operating under the LHFE exemption,” the FAA told Rob Collings in a July 29, 2011 letter announcing that no further action would be taken on the foundation’s amendment to add the activities until a new agency policy on the program was drafted.
Less than a year later, Rob Collings sent a letter to national aviation groups asking their members to deluge the FAA with letters of support for his amendments and the entire LHFE exemption program.
“We are certain changes in the LHFE program are just another way to limit warbird operation,” Rob Collings wrote in the letter. He also pointed to the moratorium and an attempt to prohibit the transfer of any government aircraft or parts for any purpose other than static display, as “examples of FAA and Department of Defense hostility” toward the program.
Rob Collings did not respond to a request for an interview.
A 2011 DOD study on the feasibility of transferring military aircraft to “nonfederal entities” for the purposes of restoring and preserving warbirds questioned the FAA’s ability to monitor the LHFE exemption participants if the exemptions included aerial maneuvers and allowing the public to manipulate the controls. DOD officials also pointed out that once an aircraft has been destroyed in a crash, it has not been “preserved.”
“Some of these petitioners (in the LHFE program) are now creating business models that, if authorized by the FAA, would offer civilians an opportunity to conduct simulated aerial combat flights with handson flight experience in these aircraft,” the DOD study said. “They argue that the economics of preserving aircraft for public access and historical purposes require the income such flights would generate. The financial challenges faced by NFEs should not be basis for allowing activities, which are significantly more hazardous to passenger, the public to occur.”
Tax documents show that Rob Collings was compensated $17,000 by the foundation in 2008 for his role as executive director. By 2016, his compensation jumped to more than $333,000.
Within days of the B17 crash, the Collings Foundation released a message of condolence for those who died and said the tour and all flight activities have been canceled for the rest of 2019. The FAA has received hundreds of positive letters about the foundation and the Wings of Freedom tour since Wednesday when Rob Collings issued a letter to aviation groups seeking support.
Only a few of those who sent letters mentioned the risks and concerns for the passengers and the public on the ground.
“In the coming months, federal agencies will be reviewing the LHFE program for not only our organization, but many other organizations nationwide who continue to fly vintage aircraft as a part of their educational mission,” Rob Collins said in the Wednesday letter to supporters. “As these reviews take place, we feel it is important for the voices of those impacted by the Wings of Freedom Tour over the years to be heard. We need to let federal agencies know that the LHFE program is important to you and other American citizens as an educational tool.”