FIFI Reveals Why WW2 B29 Kee Bird was Destroyed 

Ditto! I went from being ecstatic to heartbreak in a matter of seconds.

I remember screaming at the TV. How could they? Well the "good" thing is that it happened on the ground and not while flying.

They were probably thinking what anyone with half a grain of common sense would have surmised right at the beginning: the airframe should have been parted-up and flown to a suitable restoration facility. Not rebuilt on a bloody glacier at the arse end of the world. Terrible decision fuelled by ego and nothing else.

I cried when it burned. I wish they would've taken it apart, shipped it back to the states and restored it here.

The saddest part wasn't the loss of the plane but the loss of Darryl Greenamyer who just worked through the pain and never complained until it was too late.

This needs pinned as it IS the correct answer.

no need to even watch the silly video on this page.

Absolute idiot, destroyed a priceless piece of history in seconds, hope his license was revoked for that

Makes me want to throw up and cry at the same time every time I watch it

Yes sir they are, I would've been excited to see inside of it. 😀😀😀😀

Thanks for the comment, Paul. We'll be posting more about the Kee Bird this winter.

@@HistoryX I just saw a video this morning of the remains as they appeared in 2014 (if I remember the title correctly) but didn't save the link. Otherwise I would've shared it here.

@@pauld6967 You're correct. There are a couple of videos that show the aftermath / remains. One as recent as 2019 I think. We'll be featuring those videos, as well as an interview with Darryl Greenamyer shortly before his death where he reminisces about the recovery attempt. I am also attempting to secure an interview with Vern Rich. Hoping you'll consider subscribing!

@@HistoryX 👍

One wonders if you'd make good decisions after months of mind numbing, body wracking work and freezing temperatures. They were exhausted, but it was a long way from incompetence.

Good point

+ Geri Egan The APU didn't leak. The fuel pump was broken and they decided to rig a can of avgas above it, and the fuel dumped all over the hot APU.

@@FiveCentsPlease Even worse.

@@FiveCentsPlease their carelessness caused the loss of that aircraft that very well likely would have been airworthy. you shouldnt "rig" things on priceless aircraft where only a few examples left that can be made to fly again.

@@geriegan389 It’s worse in the context that the fuel spilled during the taxi, as rough as their makeshift runway was, that and possibly starting off with too much fuel in the makeshift tank are what caused the fuel to spill. If they had put just enough fuel in the APU tank to get them airborne and then topped it off after the rough ride settled down we could probably be enjoying 3 airworthy Super Fortresses at the air shows these days.

Thank you for the comment, Dan. I follow along with your line of thinking, that being lost took higher priority than the added drag due to the tail skid not retracting. Their mission was to last approximately 26 hours with fuel to spare. However, the crew was forced to ditch after just 19 hours due to low fuel. As a pilot I was taught there is no reason to ditch when you still have fuel in the tank. If you have the fuel and the time, then keep flying and try to determine your location. I cannot help but wonder... If the Kee Bird had that additional seven hours of time, would they have eventually been able to get a fix and navigate to a suitable runway? I feel the tail skid was still the main problem... It robbed them of time. Your thoughts?

@@HistoryX I doubt they landed because of the immediate lack of fuel, but rather because they didn't have enough fuel to make it through the night to the next morning. Or they may have had a mechanical issue that precluded them being able to use all their fuel. (The B-29 "BocksCar" almost ran out of gas on the Nagasaki mission with some six-hundred gallons of fuel still onboard because a fuel pump in the aft bomb bay packed up and they couldn't transfer the gas out of their bomb bay aux tanks. I lost access to six thousand pounds of fuel in a Hercules one night the same way). I read the Wikipedia thing and I don't believe they were down to "four minutes of fuel". You can't tell four minutes of fuel from zero or from fifteen minutes, so I call bullsh*t on that. But, I digress... My understanding is that it was getting awfully dark awfully fast and bailing out of the airplane would have meant no chance of survival for any of them. The pilot made the best choice he could in landing while he could still see. Running the gas off until they had to land in the dark likely would have killed them all because if you've never seen a moonless, inky night in the arctic (I've seen many) it gives DARK a whole new meaning. The drag from the tailskid wouldn't have entered into it. They weren't out of gas after nineteen hours, they just didn't have enough fuel to stay airborne until it became daylight again. And after being airborne for nineteen hours, half of those essentially hopelessly lost, those guys were wiped. Coffee, cigarettes and adrenaline can only keep you awake for so long. Had they known where they were, had they been able to get on top of the weather and shoot some stars and figure out a position, they might have made it to Frobisher Bay or Thule, but in 1947 I'm not sure they even existed yet. Since we know they had weather issues and couldn't get on top, they might also have been in and out of icing and that would have eaten into their fuel because the weight and drag of the ice would have meant they had to push the power up and they probably spent a lot of extra time at climb power trying to get on top. But, ultimately, Lt Vern Arnett got his crew on the ground safely that night, and I hope he got a medal for it.

@@stearman456 I don't think their decision to ditch was due to it getting awfully dark awfully fast. Keep in mind it was 10:10 am when they finally belly-landed, so lack of daylight was not an issue at all. In fact, it was the increasing daylight that was impeding the astro-navigator's ability to get a celestial fix. I still feel Arnett's decision was based on fuel loss due to the drag caused by the failure to retract the tail skid.

@@HistoryX You've talked to some of the guys who were on the crew so I'll defer to you here, but it was 10:10 where? Alaska? Is that the time in the Nav's log that they said they landed at? And did the crew tell you what time they actually landed? 10 am in Alaska would be about 3 or 4 pm in Greenland, and in February it's getting dark there about then, especially on an overcast day. Unless they pushed the power up to regain the speed they lost by having the tailskid down (and I don't know any professional pilot in those circumstances who would do that) then how did the tailskid eat up their fuel? I suppose it's possible if they had bags of gas and just wanted to get it over and done with, but it's unlikely. The engines on the B-29 were not very reliable so I imagine they stuck pretty religiously to their long-range cruise power settings. But being in ice and trying to climb will burn up a lot of gas, and having a mechanical fault can isolate fuel from you. In some airplanes if you transfer fuel improperly you can actually end up blowing it over the side accidentally - that's been done many times. The tailskid would have slowed them down some but it wouldn't have eaten into their fuel. But I am curious, how did you know it was still down? I've never read a B-29 AFM so I don't know if you can lower it independent of the landing gear, but it was certainly down after they landed. What you might be able to do though is contact the Air Force and see if the accident investigation report is available (I expect that it is). I have no idea where you'd start looking but somebody at the Wright-Patterson museum could probably get you pointed in the right direction. I'll dig through my stuff at home and copy some photos I have of the airplane from about 1981. My dad flew past it a few times in an Air Force Herc and they photographed it. Kee-Bird's kinda melted flap indicator sits on my bookshelf at home with my B-29 books and one of Greenamyer's ratchets lives on in my toolbox. A friend of mine flew a crew into the site afterwards to clean it up and he salvaged a few items and sent them off to me. Always great to meet another enthusiast! (And where's Part 3?!?) LOL

@@stearman456 You know, that's a good question about the time zone. I actually read that time in Carl Hoffman's book, 'Hunting Warbirds', which chronicles Kee Bird's last flight in the second chapter. One of the problems the three navigators faced was dawn was approaching when the plane finally broke into fairly clear skies. The looming sunrise prevented them from getting a decent fix on the remaining few stars. Also, while things were clearing up, the morning sun was still hazy, so getting a horizon fix on the sun was far from precise. But there was also a comment about them losing sunlight after they landed, which allowed the navigators to vaguely determine they were somewhere on the 80th parallel. So I'm a bit confused about the daylight/night-time situation. On another matter, one thing I do want to be clear on, so I do not confuse anyone, while I have talked at length with most members of the recovery expedition crew, unfortunately I never had the chance to talk with the original Kee Bird aircrew.

I've actually been researching the Kee bird expedition over the last year. Have had a chance to interview many surviving members of the salvage team, as well as the original NOVA film crew. There is definitely more to the story. Tune in for a LIVE session Saturday morning to learn more!

Took one, and then reminded the rest why rushing a flight is a bad idea.

From the looks of it no amount of 3d printing will bring that beauty back.

that is complete possible i been two years studing how to do it and there is one option there because the kee bird did not burt at all . the center of the fuselage with wing is dam solid to this days son best way is tow out of the lake with a helicopter later hook up to a vertical winch and from take avery thing apart flaps . engines landing gear , separate the wings from the last cone fuselage parts . and the only way to carri all is using 6 chinooks helicopter from the airforce because they carry alot payload just for the wings i think the rest can pick up with caribou the been using y the rescue on the 90s

Was Daryl ever held accountable for destroying that plane ?

@@oldmanonthehill8858 you are right sir

It was hubris, plain and simple. And if I recall someone died during the restoration process.

Doubly so when it cost the life of one of the men on the project. The whole thing is a tragedy with a capital T

@@HM2SGT Yes I remember their main mechanic getting sick and passing. So tragic!

It's sad it happened. They were also rushing too. I know it was extremely cold and I hate working line maintenance in 0 degree weather. I couldn't imagine how they dealt with l Temps that were probably colder in that month of May they returned to the plane

@@timmanboy1 Yeah, I respect what they did - no one can imagine what they went through. Doing such hard and difficult work for months under such extreme weather conditions must be extremely exhausting and really requires bravery. Yet still they are to blame for what they did - they made some terrible mistakes and poor decisions that led to this tragic ending.

On Chevy's Gas Filter in Carb.AFTER u put it IN u Watch for 5 mins to See IF it Leaks 😝😝😝😝.Tiny piece of Junk most switch to Huge outside one safer too BUT watch.Sorry for ur Dad Big $$$$.😁😁

Thank you for the comment. I've often thought about any fuel, oil, and hydraulic fluid that would have been on board when that B-29 went down. I imagine those storage tanks would have degraded to the point that the fuel, oil and fluid would have slowly leaked-out and floated to the surface over the decades. My guess is that none remains down there at the bottom of Lake Mead. Your thoughts?

@@HistoryX It depends on the oxygen content in Lake Mead. With the water level dropping, the lake chemistry may change and rapid corrosion of the aircraft may begin including the tanks. I think it is a water pollution time bomb and the US Park Service should let a qualified team come in and barge it out. It's also a risk for boat strikes and much more accessible to souvenir thieves now.

Not doable, for a variety of reasons. Still kinda deep, although your point about the dropping water level is well made. At some point in time, somebody introduced zebra mussels into the lake, and the a/c is now completely covered with them. Those mussels have, in all likelihood, deteriorated the structural integrity of the a/c still further, and I don't think that one can truly be salvaged. As to the subject of fuel/oil leakage, at the time the a/c crashed, it was nearing the end of its flight. The tanks were mostly empty. As Lake Mead is freshwater, not salt, even if the tanks had started leaking there wasn't much left to leak out. I've gotta believe the NPS has looked into that situation and determined that there's no real problem.

@@Warhorse500 To bad abut the mussels, don't know why people are bringing them into bodies of water, I guess some don't care. I guess only time will tell on what happens with it. Thanks for the extra info.

​@@FiveCentsPlease"Thieves"

Looked like a total cowboy operation, a product of network executive fantasy, producer deadlines, and loose sponsor money. RIP, the main mechanic.

Yes, but not really. The guys were exhausted, physically and mentally. If you haven't been there, you can imagine the conditions they were working in. At the end of the day, yes, they made a bad decision- but it was largely because of how weary they were and how fatigue acts like inebriation affecting decision making.

@@HM2SGT So, impatience and gross incompetence because they were fatigued. Splitting hairs, Buddy.

​@@ddbrock9675 I sure don't see your name on the list of Kee Bird volunteers. You have no idea how it was trying to get that bird in the air. So why don't you open your mouth wide and make your head disappear.... Buddy..

would be nice if war thunder was a good game

@@userNULL Agreed.

The fuel pump wasn't working so they let gravity do the work, that's why they placed the tank above the generator. Question is why wasn't it better sealed so that petrol couldn't splash like that?

Not a Good idea //@@HM2SGT

+@robinj.9329 You are not correct. It was a fire from spilled fuel inside the plane.

+@lancomedic On the B-29, the APU runs various electrics and hydraulic systems for ground taxi and until takeoff. The generators on the engines take over at higher RPM.

@@FiveCentsPlease Thanks

You may be surprised that the 3350 engines had a habit of running too hot with the risk of exhaust valves filled with sodium snapping causing a blowtorch fire.The crews opened the cooling gills in flight which caused enough drag to compromise the wings lift.The 29 had a davies wing which was very highly loaded so even opening those gill plates on one engine could stall a wing.

@@GlennPowell-ls3lg That's True I read that.I met a ww11 radio man they were SCARED of the plane not Japs.😝😝😝

Hey, Karl. Thank you for the comment! When you say you 'saw that when it happened', do you mean the documentary? Or were you actually there in Greenland?

No gamble, just incompetence.

+@chrsn If the US Parks Service would allow the Lake Mead B-29 to be removed there could be another example. But the Parks Service considers it a biological preserve at this point.

Great question. It wasn't so much the fire as it was the orange smoke from the burning insulation that was the initial problem. According to Bob Vanderveen, the fire spread quickly in the back. However everyone up front had no indication of the fire except what Bob yelled through his headset, which would only work one-way. In other words the cockpit could hear Bob in the back of the plane, but Bob could not hear them. Once the crew up-front shut-down all four engines, the thick smoke poured into the cockpit. Eventually as the aircraft burned, the fire spread closer to the front, but the nose of the plane never actually burned. I hope that answers your question?

Interesting. This shows how dangerous the situation was - the two guys on board were lucky to make it out in time an remain unhurt. @@HistoryX

+@alsnyder7017 It was flash-fire from a fuel can used to by-pass the APU fuel pump.

Ayrton!!! This an awesome post! Not because of the Kee Bird being destroyed, but because of the loss of Rick Kriege. I never mentioned his name in this video and for that I will lose MAJOR points when I present myself before St Peter. I only know of the written word of the first expedition from Carl Hoffman. If anyone has video of that Huey trek to the Kee Bird site with Gary Larkins where they start an engine, I would love to hear about it!

@@HistoryX If you take a look on RU-vid "Chasing Reno Gold Darryl Greenamyer bonus video", there is an interview with Darryl talking about the first expeditions with several Huey choppers + the fuel stops etc and also about him having a video of that first start up that wasn't filmed by nova so it probably does exist.

Ayrton: I know they had to make six different flights in Darryl's Huey helicopter to plant fuel along the route in order to eventually get to the Kee Brid's location. However I am not aware of any video that may exist. I am going to start digging. Thank you!

@@HistoryX It would have cost a lot more money, but salvaging the Kee Bird with a heavy lift chopper like an Mi-26 with staged fuel stops would have been a much safer and smarter approach. But their motivations were profit. There were no roads near the Kee Bird (perhaps some old survey roads) so getting it out by air was the only option. Rick was injured in a hard landing when some equipment fell on him and he refused medical care initially. But he was having internal bleeding.

@@FiveCentsPlease I think it might have been reasonable to fly it out, but not on a shoestring budget. My biggest question would have been what kind of condition the fuel tanks were in seeing as how they would have been the original, self-sealing, rubber bladder type. I can see them being prohibitively deteriorated after fifty years.

+@2007MXV The APU is running until takeoff and before landing, per the handbook. It operates several systems on the ground while the engine generators are offline.

+@pat36a No, Kee Bird was on a classified mission to map invasion routes into Russia.

@@FiveCentsPlease wouldn't that fall into the navigation field?

@@pat36a Kee Bird was an F-13 conversion for photo reconnaissance.

Thank you so much for this comment! You know, with all of the investigation I've done on this subject, that never once occurred to me. I appreciate the input!

@@HistoryX From what I understand, someone was in the back operating the APU but there was a lot of dust inside the cabin. They stepped away to put on a pair of goggles and that was when the rigged up can of fuel spilled onto the APU and started a flash fire. Darryl's harness would not release and he almost could not get out.

@@FiveCentsPlease Thank you for the comment! I had not heard the part of the story where Darryl had trouble getting out of his harness. I was aware that someone was stationed in the tail and that it was an incredibly jarring and rough ride as the Key Bird was taxiing across the tundra to the improvised runway. However I did not know about the dust and the hasty search for goggles. Thank you so much for the input!!

@@HistoryX this is accurate. I was the guy in the back.

@@bobvanderveen3528 Wow… Bob Vanderveen! A thrill to hear from you! Plenty love to play the armchair quarterback. But you didn’t have a front row seat, you were in the middle of the game! I have so many questions… What went through your head during the first landing on the tundra? How do you look back on it nearly 30 years later? Would you be available for an interview?

+@androidemulator6952 It was not a B-50.

Yes, in Winter 1994, Rick Kriege fell ill and was transported to a hospital in Iqaluit, Canada, where he died from a blood clot two weeks later. R.I.P., he was a great engineer and was said to be the most competent of the team - with him maybe this would have been prevented.

+@todd3205 The Caribou plane had hard landing and heavy items fell onto Rick Kriege. He was injured but initially refused medical treatment. He had internal bleeding and was in bad shape when he was taken out.

The whole thing was more or less doomed to fail from the start. Greenamyer is a dubious figure that is not well-liked in the aviation scene and was heavily criticized for the way he handled the whole mission. With a more competent team, maybe it would have had the chance to succeed.

That is a great question, Mike. I think it had to do with the weight of each engine, as well as the time disassemble. It was hard enough to change engines when they were on a proper wing on an intact airframe. It's quite another thing to do it when the wing is laying on the ground attached to a burned-out fuselage. All that extra weight without the equipment to lift it. That's my guess.

@@HistoryX My guess is that they blew out of there before the local Greenland officials found out what happened and the mess that was left in a natural area. The new engines belonged to another party and were borrowed, and I think that was another lawsuit.

Weel be a nice project to and even cheaper the A House

+ Hopelessand Forlorn They were taking the 1950s and 1960s approach to surplus piston aircraft, which was to patch them up enough for a ferry flight to another location for more work. This was done with many Mustangs and other aircraft from as far as South America when they were retired. There were accidents back then, and it was not a smart approach for a rare B-29. I think the Kee Bird salvage is a textbook example of go fever. They should have stopped to fix the APU instead of jerry-rigging a solution and starting a fire. They were given advice to get spare parts for the APU but they did not from a what I understand.

It had nothing to do with limited resources. In regards to airworthiness how would you have a clue not having been there. We call this Fence talk from the birds sitting on the fence. It’s pretty obvious that you have never been involved in recovery of an aircraft if this type and especially not in those conditions.

The tank was to be removed and was never meant to be left in that position.

@@airworks61 The info I heard was the man operating the APU stepped away to put on some eye protection and that is when the fuel spilled.

@@FiveCentsPlease No, the man was sitting in the rear gunners position all along as the plane was taxied onto the frozen lake. The issue was there was no plan to run the aircraft down the lake until the actual takeoff. We had not emptied the plane of all the tools and supplies. In addition we were going to remove the fuel tank that was suspended above the APU unit prior to take off. How ever Daryl did not stop the aircraft but continued to do a practice run down the lake for the Discovery Camera crew. The decision was on him. We didn't forget to remove or secure anything the plans were simply not followed as briefed. The man in the back of the plane was doing his job as briefed.

@@airworks61 Sounds like a case of go fever. It reminds of the TBM that went down at Cocoa Beach. The pilot didn't attend the safety meeting, didn't listen to anybody on the radio telling him that he had a problem for 20 minutes, and then he puts it down in the middle of swimmers instead of in the offshore box that had been identified in the safety briefing.

@@FiveCentsPlease I totally agree on that analysis. The rest of the crew was not happy with the decision to run the plane down the runway.

The whole thing was more or less doomed to fail from the start. Greenamyer is a dubious figure that is not well-liked in the aviation scene and was heavily criticized for the way he handled the whole mission. With a more competent team, maybe it would have had the chance to succeed. They should have waited until a more competent person tried to do it - 30 years ago, there was not nearly as much money or manpower to salvage old war birds as there is today. If it was tried today by professional people, it could have succeeded.

+ Feuer Wolf That's because they were salvaging the plane for a profit with other people's money. They were in a hurry.

And yet it stil sits there, 30 years later. Wait another year they bemoaned?

They are to blame for exactly that treason - they had no patience and rushed the whole procedure, which led to some poor decision-making and left little room for error.

+@fanatamon Or wait and fix the broken fuel pump like they were told.

@@FiveCentsPlease even better, very foolish behaviour.

+@bennoakes2477 There are so many nicks and scratches under the paint that it would horribly expensive to re-skin FIFI . But I think it will get new shiny new skin one day if they have the money.