This is a partial list of accidents and incidents involving the Boeing-designed B-17 Flying Fortress. Combat losses are not included except for a very few cases denoted by singular circumstances. A few documented drone attrition cases are also included.
Aircraft were constructed by a three-firm consortium, Boeing, Vega and Douglas, known by the acronym BVD. Boeing built aircraft at their plant in Seattle, Washington, and their production models were appended -BO. Douglas Aircraft Company constructed aircraft at Long Beach, California, with a -DL suffix. The Vega Aircraft Corporation, a subsidiary of the Lockheed Aircraft Company, at Burbank, California, delivered aircraft with the -VE suffix.
Eight USAAF crew, 16 U.S. Coast Guardsmen, returning from duty in Greenland, and one civilian are killed when the B-17G-105-BO, 43-39136, c/n 10114, they are flying in crashes into Mount Tom, Massachusetts,[111] at ~2220 hrs. while attempting to land at Westover Field, Massachusetts.[112][113] A monument to the victims was dedicated on the crash site on 6 July 1996.[114]
(paragraph 14): In the aviation industry, there was a whole development of the process called "the checklist." And some people date this back to 1935 when a very complex [Boeing] B-17 [Flying] Fortress was being tested with the head of the military aviation division. And it exploded, and the pilot unfortunately died. And when they analyzed what happened, they realized that the high-tech airplane was so complex that a human being could not keep track of everything. And that even if he was the smartest, most experienced pilot, it was just too much and you were bound to have an error. And so they developed the idea of making a checklist to make sure that every single thing you have to check is done.
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Media related to B-17 Flying Fortress at Wikimedia Commons