EDIT: Wait... I just realized were talking about 2 different crash sites here..... anyways:
I didn't say lake, or Okeechobee, I said Sebring.
What got me started searching for any B-17's was the fact that Hendricks Feild was a major B-17 training base, and I knew that around 10 crashed North of the airport.
Well, me being a racecar driver, I got to chat with the track manager, who just so happened to have posted here a few years back:
http://forum.armyairforces.com/WW-II-bo ... 72522.aspxQuote:
My husband's family owned the property adjacent to Hendrick's Field, now Sebring Airport (but not at the time of the crash).
My husband's father worked at Hendrick's Field when the crash occurred.
When clearing the land several years ago, they came across not one, but two different crashed B17 bombers. With the heavy equipment, they dug a hole and buried both of them.
I believe the property the B17 crash site you are showing in the photos is part of the swamp land they sold. There had been a sod farm on that property.
What she doesn't say here is that in the 80's, her husband's father was doing some digging with a tractor around the North end of runway 18, and ran over the tail of a B-17. They spend a few months trying to pull it out, but the suction from the mud that the plane was stuck in was too great. They tried trucks, crane's, even a helicopter, but they didn't work, so they just left that B-17 where it was.
If you look at google earth, I think you can see a wing sticking out of the ground... But that might also be a patch of concrete.
Where the other 2 B-17's are I have no clue, as she didn't bring those up in our conversation.
BTW, Can we get the topic name changed to Florida B-17's?