Wild Horse opens with new exhibit honoring B-17 bomber that crashed during 1943 training

Bellevue, Washington (3/28/2023) As Puget Sound Energy’s Wild Horse Renewable Energy Center opens for the year, a new exhibit is being unveiled to honor nine Army airmen who lost their lives when the B-17 bomber they were training in, crashed into a hillside on the property in 1943.

On March 29, 1943 a B-17 Flying Fortress assigned to the Ephrata Army Air Base, took off to practice takeoffs, landings, instrumentation and a dry bombing run. During the training, the plane collided with a hillside killing all nine airmen onboard. The wreckage was found days later in what is now part of the Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility.

The Army Air Force salvaged the plane after it crashed in 1943. This site was formally documented by the military, and several other people knew of the site, however the exact location wasn’t recorded.

That’s when our team started searching for it in 2021 and after using information from the crash report, they located the crash site where quite a few smaller remnants of the plane remained, including small fragments of Plexiglas from the nose and windows, aluminum from the body, and two distinct burned patches where the plane caught fire after the crash.

To commemorate the 80th anniversary of this tragedy, a new exhibit honoring the nine airmen lost in the accident, houses pieces of the Flying Fortress, and tells the history of the B-17 and WWII training in the area. A memorial section features Wapato local, Second Lieutenant Ennis Hake, who was training on the B-17 while stationed in Ephrata.

The Wild Horse Renewable Energy Center is located at 25901 Vantage Hwy in Ellensburg, WA 98926

Media Contact:

Andrew Padula, 1-888-831-7250, psenewsroom@pse.com