The very first example built of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress , the initial Model 299 aircraft , was lost in just this way on October 30 , 1935 , when its self-contained gust locks were left engaged , with the resulting crash killing Boeing chief test pilot Leslie Tower , and United States Army Air Corps test pilot Ployer Peter Hill . Less than a year later , German Luftwaffe '' Generalleutnant '' Walter Wever lost his life in a similar accident from gust lock neglect , when his Heinkel He 70 '' Blitz '' monoplane crashed on June 3 , 1936 , from the '' Blitz 's '' aileron gust locks not being disengaged before takeoff . Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden , the American singer and actress Grace Moore and 20 others were killed in 1947 during the crash of a KLM flight at Copenhagen Airport due to the flight crew forgetting to disengage the gust lock on the tail fin of the aircraft . The crash of Air Indiana Flight 216 occurred due to failure to remove the gust locks
Air Indiana Flight 216
Air Indiana Flight 216
Gust lock