This Crewless B-17 Landed Itself Successfully on an Airfield

On November 23, 1944, the Royal Air Force (RAF) stationed in Belgium witnessed something both surreal and unexplainable. It was a quiet evening until a massive American B-17 Flying Fortress appeared in the sky, heading toward their base near Katzenbach. The RAF personnel watched in amazement as the aircraft approached, assuming it was an emergency landing given the way the plane descended rapidly. As the B-17 neared the airfield, it barely avoided a crash, landing roughly but successfully in a nearby field.

The Strange Case of the “Phantom Fortress”

Upon touchdown, the propellers broke off, but three of the four engines were still running. The RAF unit waited anxiously for the crew to emerge. However, after 15 minutes passed with no signs of movement, the situation became more puzzling. By the 20th minute, Major John Crisp and his team cautiously approached the mysterious aircraft. What they found inside stunned them.

The B-17, also known as the Flying Fortress, typically had a crew of ten men, yet there was no one aboard. The aircraft was entirely empty. Oddly, parachutes were neatly stored, as if the crew had planned to use them but never did. This sight left Crisp and the others perplexed. How could such a massive plane land itself without anyone guiding it?

Upon further inspection, Crisp found that the plane’s equipment, including the Sperry bombsight, was still intact. The cockpit seemed undisturbed, and nothing was visibly out of order except for some half-eaten chocolate bars and jackets left behind by the crew. Three engines were still running, and everything appeared functional. It was as though the B-17 had flown and landed entirely on its own, with no human intervention. Adding to the mystery, the plane had no name painted on its fuselage, unlike most B-17s, which were usually given nicknames by their crews. This aircraft later became known as the “Phantom Fortress.”

The Final Mission and Mystifying Landing of the “Phantom Fortress”

Investigators traced the plane’s serial number to the 91st Bomber Group, which operated out of East Anglia, England. The B-17 had been part of a bombing mission targeting an oil factory in Germany. During the raid, the aircraft had suffered heavy damage from German anti-aircraft fire. One engine was hit, and the bomb bay sustained damage, though fortunately, none of the bombs detonated. The crew, led by Lieutenant Harold DeBolt, struggled to keep the plane airborne. They jettisoned unnecessary equipment to lighten the load, but the B-17 continued losing altitude. With one engine failing and the situation growing worse, DeBolt made the difficult decision to abandon the plane.

The crew parachuted out near Brussels, Belgium, and all ten members were found safe at a nearby Allied base. However, they assumed the B-17 would crash soon after they bailed out. None of them expected it to continue flying, let alone land itself.

After the crew left, the B-17 continued on autopilot, a basic system that could keep the plane level but not perform complex maneuvers like landing. Yet, somehow, the aircraft flew another 90 miles before landing near the RAF base. The RAF personnel reported that when the plane landed, three of its engines were still functioning, and its landing gear was deployed—an act that should have required human control.

Theories Surrounding the “Phantom Fortress”

The B-17’s engines were known to sometimes restart after cooling down, which might explain why some were still running upon landing. However, it didn’t account for how the landing gear was lowered or how the plane managed to land without crashing. To make matters stranger, the RAF found no major damage to the plane, aside from the landing itself, which had only damaged the propellers.

The crew’s account of what happened didn’t match the condition of the aircraft upon landing. They reported being hit by enemy fire, but the plane showed no signs of such damage, aside from one engine. The fact that none of the parachutes had been used also raised questions. How could the crew have bailed out if the parachutes were still stored on the plane?

Theories to explain these mysteries include coincidences like the aircraft losing enough weight after the crew bailed to allow it to fly more smoothly, or that the remaining engines restarted at just the right time. The plane’s descent angle and speed may have aligned perfectly with an unintentional landing aided by its autopilot. Still, none of these explanations fully account for all the oddities of the situation. To this day, how the B-17 managed to land itself remains one of the strangest and most mysterious events of World War II.

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