A Lockheed Ventura, N44M took off from runway 1 of Milwaukee-General Mitchell Airport, Wisconsin, USA, at approximately 17:08 for an IFR flight to Winnipeg, Canada. Aboard were two pilots and two passengers: Fred Miller, Sr, President of the Miller Brewing Company, and his son. As the aircraft was passing over the northern boundary of the airport, after an apparently normal takeoff, the Mitchell Field Tower Controller received the message, “an engine on fire” and “making an emergency landing.” The aircraft, which had started a turn to the left at this time, was cleared to return to the airport and use any runway. The pilot then reported an engine feathered. As the controller turned up all runway lights to the highest intensity, personnel in the tower observed a mushrooming mass of flame just north of the field. The aircraft had crashed in a nose-down right-wing-low attitude in an open field approx. 3,200 feet north of the airport and west of the extended runway 1 centreline. Probable cause: “The failure of the left engine, together with a reduction of power in the right engine following takeoff, which prevented normal single-engine performance. This condition together with the fact that the aircraft was overloaded for single-engine performance resulted in loss of control.”