Fatal P-40E crash Montana 06/27/2023

Hooligan2 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 27, 2023 2:31 pm

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/316085

Very sad news...

Warbirdnerd · **Joined:** Fri Apr 30, 2004 7:34 pm **Posts:** 2923

Incredibly sad.

RyanShort1 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 27, 2023 3:32 pm

Wow. Wonder what went wrong.

mazdaP5 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 27, 2023 4:19 pm

Terribly sad about the loss of the pilot.

Matt Gunsch · **Posted:** Tue Jun 27, 2023 4:35 pm

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p40regis ... ak753.html

kalamazookid · **Posted:** Tue Jun 27, 2023 4:49 pm

A local news article (photos):

https://www.montanarightnow.com/missoul ... b11df.html

There's an outlet reporting the name of the pilot already, but it would probably be best to wait for multiple sources to confirm before sharing.

Terrible news and sorry to hear about the loss of the pilot.

Bradburger · **Posted:** Tue Jun 27, 2023 4:51 pm

Very sad news.

It appears the pilot was Paul Ehlen

https://www.startribune.com/owner-of-bl ... 600285735/

martin_sam_2000 · **Joined:** Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:05 am **Posts:** 394

Matt Gunsch wrote:

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p40registry/p40-ak753.html

that is an older picture in the registry adn the details don't match other information. There is some other info on this site:
https://www.aerialvisuals.ca/AirframeDo ... meSN=25128

this is the P-40 in question as it was flown recently:

Sean

Matt Gunsch · **Posted:** Tue Jun 27, 2023 6:26 pm

Seems like the P-40s owners company, in the last couple of months, was fined by the Govt 487 million for medicare fraud.

Deuelly · **Joined:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 3:30 pm **Posts:** 97

Matt Gunsch wrote:

Seems like the P-40s owners company, in the last couple of months, was fined by the Govt 487 million for medicare fraud.

Let's keep it to warbirds and the topic of this post. I'm sure there are forums out there if you want to discuss legal issues people have.

Brandon

hurricane_yank · **Joined:** Wed Apr 02, 2014 9:33 pm **Posts:** 431

Very sad to hear this - looks like it is completely gone.

RyanShort1 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 27, 2023 8:34 pm

hurricane_yank wrote:

Very sad to hear this - looks like it is completely gone.

I dunno, the pilot can't be rebuilt. Looks like at least half of the plane could theoretically be reused.

https://nbcmontana.com/news/local/plane ... on-airport

The picture in the link above makes it look like the plane came down pretty hard. Major stress wrinkles in the rear fuselage.

LegendaryWings · **Posted:** Wed Jun 28, 2023 2:12 am

Oh no, this is terrible news!

Paul Ehlen (the pilot) was also the owner of the P-51D Sierra Sue II, a TBM-3 Avenger, an AT-6D, and a Stearman N2S. I wonder if the rest of his collection will come up for sale soon?

hurricane_yank · **Joined:** Wed Apr 02, 2014 9:33 pm **Posts:** 431

RyanShort1 wrote:

hurricane_yank wrote:

Very sad to hear this - looks like it is completely gone.

I dunno, the pilot can't be rebuilt. Looks like at least half of the plane could theoretically be reused.

https://nbcmontana.com/news/local/plane ... on-airport

The picture in the link above makes it look like the plane came down pretty hard. Major stress wrinkles in the rear fuselage.

I am assuming the pilot was removed already by the time that video was taken? Pretty wild they have video BEFORE first responders arrived.

RyanShort1 · **Posted:** Wed Jun 28, 2023 8:44 am

hurricane_yank wrote:

I am assuming the pilot was removed already by the time that video was taken? Pretty wild they have video BEFORE first responders arrived.

Who knows? Someone who landed at the airport as it was happening stated on another message board that according to eyewitnesses it looked like an aggressive takeoff followed by a stall and it sounded like people knew there was trouble pretty fast. That's just what's on another message board, so take it with a grain of salt until we know more.

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Fatal P-40E crash Montana 06/27/2023

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