History Of Flight: This B-17G was stationed at Kingman Army Airfield when it departed in the early evening of September 17th for a night navigational flight. As it approached Flagstaff, witnesses reported the engines were running at an excessive speed and that the aircraft's airspeed was below normal. The plane began a 360 degree climbing turn around the San Francisco Peaks when two fires were seen on the aircraft. Approximately one minute later, a third fire was seen in the rear of the aircraft. Soon after, the flaming aircraft lost power and began a descent until it impacted into the side of a peak, spreading wreckage down the steep canyon and killing all on board. The airmen were: 1st Lt. Richard Howell, 2nd Lt. Richard Davis, Flight Officer Lafayette Brown, Sgt. Edmond Sikora. In 1997, friends and fellow wreck hunters Bob Lasher and Robert Kropp found Ed Sikora's sterling silver AAF ring in the wreckage and were able to return it to Sikora's sister. In 2009, I had the pleasure to take Ed Sikora's nephew, Jim Sikora, back up to the crash. He was the first family member to visit the site where Edmond had died.