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Lituanica airplane crash...
Lituanica airplane crash...
Item # 562467
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July 18, 1933
THE NEW YORK TIMES, New York, NY, July 18, 1933
* Lituanica research aircraft
* Mysterious crash (1st report)
This 38 page newspaper has one column headlines on the front page that include: "KAUNAS FLIERS DIE IN CRASH IN REICH", "Bodies of Darius and Girenas Found With Wrecked Plane Near Soldin, Pomerania", "Gasoline Tanks Empty" and more.
Other news of the day throughout. Light browning with minor margin wear, otherwise in good condition.
wikipedia notes: Even today an ordinary, unprepared plane of this size cannot cover such a distance (Cessna 152, for instance, can fly only 1200 km). The flight was also important from the scientific point of view, exploring the air flows and possibilities of this type of the aircraft. They were the first who officially carried air mail from North America to Europe.
In their last letter, the pilots wrote that either a successful flight or a possible catastrophe would be valuable and significant enough and hence it is worthwhile to fly in either case.
After taking off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York on July 15, 1933, 6:24 AM EDT, Darius and Girėnas in their Lituanica successfully crossed the Atlantic, only to perish on July 17, 0:36 AM (Berlin Time) by the village of Kuhdamm, near Soldin, Germany (now Pszczelnik, Myslibórz area, Poland).( 52°51'11.57"N 14°50'17.78"E ) The planned route was: New York - Newfoundland - Atlantic Ocean - Ireland - London - Amsterdam - Swinemünde - Königsberg - Kaunas (a total of 7,186 km). Due to weather conditions over Ireland, they veered to the north and reached Germany via Scotland and the North Sea. In 37 hours and 11 minutes, until the moment of the crash, they had flown 6411 km (over 7000 km in actual flight path), only 650 km short of their goal — Kaunas.
Category: The 20th Century
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