NTSB: Issues Final Report On B-17 Crash in Connecticut. At Least One Surprising Finding.

In issuing its statement of probable cause, the NTSB said that the crash was caused by a combination of faulty maintenance practices, the pilot's lowering of the gear before he had the runway made and the FAA's lax oversight of the Collings Foundation's Safety Management System (SMS).

Here is the NTSB's verbatim statement of probable cause:

"The pilot's failure to properly manage the airplane's configuration and airspeed after he shut down the No. 4 engine following its partial loss of power during the initial climb. Contributing to the accident was the pilot/maintenance director's inadequate maintenance while the airplane was on tour, which resulted in the partial loss of power to the Nos. 3 and 4 engines; the Collings Foundation's ineffective safety management system (SMS), which failed to identify and mitigate safety risks; and the Federal Aviation Administration's inadequate oversight of the Collings Foundation's SMS."

While perhaps to be expected, the Board's finding that the pilot failed to properly manage the airplane's configuration during the accident sequence seemed to be, what one safety expert called, "!a serious case of Monday morning quarterbacking." The Board's criticism was that the pilot lowered the gear too soon, resulting in extra drag, which contributed to the plane not making it back to the runway. At the same time, the pilot was dealt a bad hand, with the partial loss of power to both of the engines on one side of the plane, coupled with the low altitude at which the power loss began, creating an extremely challenging emergency to respond to.

Moreover, the gear takes a long time, around 10 seconds, to extend, as you can see in this Facebook video, so that might have entered into the mindset.

Also included in the report were discussion of what the Board found to be faulty maintenance practices, which led to the engine issues that precipitated the crash. The full report can be found here.