Pilots fly historic aircraft from Paine Field to France for D-Day commemoration



SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. -- Three pilots prepared for take off Saturday from Paine Field, bound for Normandy, France. They'll arrive in the region in time for a D-Day reenactment 75 years after the Allied forces invaded northern France during World War II.

The pilots will fly across the pond in the Historic Flight Foundation's DC-3. Aviators used a military version of the aircraft, the C-47, during the Allied invasion of Europe.

Thousands of people lost their lives during D-Day in 1944, but it marked a critical turning point during the war.

Today, there's only one surviving pathfinder pilot from D-Day.

He'll be carried across the English Channel June 5 by the Historic Flight aviators, just one day before troops stormed the beaches of Normandy.