HARTFORD, Conn. _ At a Thursday afternoon news conference, the day after the fiery crash of a B-17 bomber at Bradley International Airport, state police released the names of the victims.
The one person confirmed dead from the crash is 56-year-old passenger David Broderick of West Springfield, Mass.
An additional six people are presumed dead: pilot Ernest McCauley, 75, of Long Beach, Calif.; co-pilot Michael Foster, 71, of Jacksonville, Fla.; passenger Gary Mazzone, 66, of Broad Brook; passenger James Robert, 48, of Ludlow, Mass.; passenger Robert Riddell, 59, of East Granby; and passenger Robert Rubner, 64, of Tolland.
The seven people injured in the crash were: passenger Andy Barrett, 36, of South Hadley, Mass.; passenger Linda Schmidt, 62, of Suffield; passenger Tom Schmidt, 62, of Suffield; passenger Joseph "JT" Huber, 48, of of Simsbury; passenger James Traficante, 54, of Simsbury; flight engineer Mitchell Melton, 34, of Dalehart, Texas; and airport worker Andrew Sullivan, 28, of Enfield.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the plane crash, and officials offered an update at a Thursday afternoon news conference.
Hartford Hospital officials said at a news conference earlier Thursday that the hospital received six of those injured in the crash. By Wednesday evening, three of the patients had been released, officials said. Two others were transferred to the Connecticut Burn Center at Bridgeport Hospital, and one person was still at Hartford Hospital as of Thursday afternoon.
Although the names of all involved have now been released, details are still emerging about those people's lives. Several of the families and friends of the crash victims have told The Hartford Courant about their loved ones.
The pilot, McCauley, had 7,300 hours of flight time on the B-17, according to NTSB board member Jennifer Homendy. That made McCauley the most experienced B-17 pilot in the nation.
He had been flying for Wings of Freedom for 20 years, Homendy said, and was also the safety officer for the Collings Foundation, which runs Wings of Freedom tours on the historic planes.
Reaction to McCauley's death was swift in the tight-knit community that flies vintage aircraft.
"An organization like this is even tighter" than the wider community of pilots, said Eric Whyte, a fellow Wings of Freedom Tour pilot and a friend and protege of McCauley's.
Whyte said in a social media post that McCauley was a former football player "who took pride in being a curmudgeon, liked to laugh at millennials but (had) a soft spot for animals. Especially dogs. He would often sneak away from the tour and visit animal shelters to walk the dogs since being on the road he couldn't have one of his own."
And McCauley had a rule, Whyte said: "No selfies in the cockpit."
Whyte said he and McCauley had a "friendly banter about whose airplane was better. He was a B-17 guy I was a B-24 ... As a very experienced pilot and mechanic, I often picked his brain about the airplanes and he was happy to help ... The first time I flew with him I couldn't get the parking brake to release. We had clearance to taxi and no matter what I couldn't get the parking brake off. Mac looked over and laughed and said 'You know we aren't going anywhere until you get that figured out.' Both of us were laughing as I finally got it to release."
As Whyte wished his friend godspeed, he said it had been a tough day.
"Blue Skies and tailwinds guys," Whyte said. "It was an honor to fly with you."
Passenger Riddell's wife Debra posted about her husband on Facebook.
"Rob was the best person I've ever known," she wrote. "He was my soul mate I will miss him beyond words can ever express. He loved his children more than anyone could know and the new grandson was the apple of his eye. He embraced my daughter and grandchildren and loved them as his own."
"He was brilliant, loving, funny, reliable, compassionate and the best man I've ever known. The world lost an amazing person today."
Traficante, injured in the crash, is a five-year member of the Simsbury Volunteer Fire Department and a chief master sergeant in the Connecticut Air National Guard.
He was able to open a hatch on the burning plane without burning his hands because he had brought his military-issued, flame-retardant flight gloves with him, the Guard said Thursday.
Using the gloves, he opened the hatch and allowed other passengers to get out, they said. The Air National Guard didn't initially name Traficante in a news release but said he is the command chief for the 103rd Airlift Wing.
Traficante was injured _ sources said he suffered at least one broken arm and a broken collarbone in the crash _ and was treated at Hartford Hospital. He was discharged later in the day, the Guard said.
As an aircrew member, Traficante has training and experience in handling aircraft emergencies, the release said.
"The Connecticut National Guard is thankful that our Airman on board the aircraft is safe and I ask that you respect his and his family's privacy as he recovers," said Maj. Gen. Francis Evon, the Guard's adjutant general.
Traficante was on board with another member of the Simsbury Volunteer Fire Department, Huber.
Fire Marshal and Deputy Chief Kevin Kowalski said Huber has been with the fire department for nearly 15 years.
"They're good guys, they're part of our family and we're going to help them through this," Kowalski said.
He said the department is working on putting together some type of support for Huber and Traficante, depending on what they and their families need.
"We're just going to try to help them," Kowalski said. "Our folks with be working with the family to make sure that they're all set."
Mazzone, who retired nine months ago after a 42-year career in law enforcement, was among those who died in the crash. He most recently was a police inspector in the Litchfield state's attorney's office.
"I was really worried about him retiring," said his son Brian Mazzone, an English teacher at Enfield High School and the football coach at Stafford High. "I thought he'd be bored out of his mind."
But he was never bored. "He was so social. He stayed in touch with his friends. He watched my boys every Wednesday. He was doing a ton of hunting and fishing. He was really hunting and fishing every day."
And Mazzone was also working wonders with his vast array of handyman skills, helping his daughter Maureen, who had just bought a house, and building a fort with his grandson's Brody, 8, and Brock, 6. He was also a regular at his grandsons' flag football games and other sporting events. Mazzone also built a home in the Adirondack mountains that he and his wife Joan would regularly visit.
Brian Mazzone said his father always wanted to be a history teacher. He recalled family vacations to the Freedom Trail in Boston and to the museums in Washington, D.C. "He loved history and he really loves museums and historical events," he said.
Boarding the historic B-17 on Wednesday was part of that passion for history, Brian Mazzone said.
Jack Bannan, a fellow inspector, said Mazzone was looking forward to flying on the bomber and had been trying to recruit friends to join him.
"He was psyched, he was pumped," Bannan said. "It was kind of a bucket list thing for him. He talked about doing it long before this week, about doing something like this. And when the opportunity presented, he jumped on it."
Mazzone was also famous _ infamous to some _ for his practical jokes. Bannan said Mazzone called him pretending to be from the company that was renting chairs to him for his wedding. "He calls me up in a fake voice, like three or four days before my wedding," Bannan recalled. "'This is Bill from Acme Chair Rental and we have a bit of a problem.' Basically he's saying they've got to double the price for me." Bannan said Mazzone completely snowed him. "I'm saying I've got a contact and I'm getting all spun up," Bannan said. Mazzone, in a phony voice responds, "'Come on Mr. Bannan, you've got to be reasonable.' He just kept going and I was in the stratosphere."
Mazzone joined the Vernon Police Department 1976 and retired in 1998 at the rank of captain. He then went to work as a state inspector. He retired from that job in January.
Although retired from Vernon, he remained active with the department's efforts to aid Special Olympics, Vernon Chief James Kenny said.
Rhonda Stearley-Hebert, a judicial branch communications manager who covered Vernon police for the Journal Inquirer in the 1980s when Mazzone was an officer there, said he was "just a super guy."
"He was a really good cop. He was the total package. He was smart. He was the whole package."
She just talked to him last week, she said.
"He had heard 'Help me Rhonda' on the radio. He called me. He asked me about my daughter. 'How's she doing? What's she up to?' He was upbeat and funny. ... He cared a lot for people. His children were always so important to him."
