The French Amelia Earhardt?

[Wing Nut]

Nice story!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... nt_exupery

[ozzy72]

Bonjour Monsieur Pippin, I posted a thread about this in the History forum under The Little Prince. It appears only you and I have any interest in this.
Jolly fascinating story eh?

Ozzy

[Hagar]

It's very interesting but I often wonder how these things get turned into myths & mysteries. I can only think that must be human nature. These things would soon be forgotten if they didn't involve a famous person. Many such incidents happen in wartime & there must be hundreds, if not thousands, of similar incidents when the aircraft or bodies will never be discovered. Nobody except maybe a few relatives would be particularly interested in looking for them.

This reminds me of all the theories about the disappearance of Glenn Miller, the famous bandleader. Some people still believe that he was never aboard the aircraft in the first place & survived the war. There is another wild theory that he reached Paris & was involved in a secret mission of some sort. I accept the official story that his aircraft was lost somewhere over the English Channel. It's difficult enough to find a big object like a ship, let alone a small aircraft, at the bottom of the sea. It's possible it will never be found.

[ozzy72]

How about Buddy Hollys special appearance in the second episode of the first series of The Young Ones? Does that count?

[Hagar]

How about Buddy Hollys special appearance in the second episode of the first series of The Young Ones? Does that count?

I wouldn't know about that. It must be me but I never saw anything remotely funny in the Young Ones. Not my style of humour at all.

[Wing Nut]

Bonjour Monsieur Pippin

Bonjour, you cheese eating surrender monkey!

[ozzy72]

Err Kevin I'm British and I don't like cheese (except Edam, which is Dutch). Please lie down in a cool dark corner and do your breathing exercises

[ATI_7500]

"cheese eating surrender monkey"??  ::)

[Wing Nut]

That's a 'Simpsons' reference, btw...  :D

[Fly2e]

France Identifies 'Little Prince' Author's Plane

MARSEILLE, France - A plane raised from the Mediterranean 60 years after it crashed, killing author Antoine de Saint-Exupery, has been identified and will be put on display in southern France, officials said on Wednesday.
Saint-Exupery, whose fable "The Little Prince" is considered a classic of flight, love and loneliness, disappeared on July 31, 1944, during a wartime aerial reconnaissance mission.

"The wreck of the plane that was raised last autumn near the Riou island has been identified as the (Lockheed Lightning) P-38 on which Saint-Exupery made his last voyage," said Jean-Claude Gaudin, mayor of southern Marseille.

He said the wreck would be exhibited in a Marseille museum to pay tribute to the writer and aviator who died a year after the book was published.

A French diver discovered the remains of the airplane off the coast of Marseille four years ago, after a fisherman hauled up a bracelet belonging to the author and aviator in 1998.

It was raised from 260 feet last October and, though analysis showed the plane was Saint-Exupery's, it remains unclear why it crashed. The author's body has never been recovered.

Saint-Exupery, born in 1900 to an aristocratic French family, tried several times to study liberal arts before deciding to become a pilot.

As an adult, his passion for flying inspired "Vol de Nuit" ("Night Flight") and in 1943 "The Little Prince," an all-time bestseller about a pilot downed in the Sahara who meets a mysterious prince with whom he makes an interplanetary journey.

[Scorpiоn]

Hagar, I'm not sure if you know, and perhaps we're not even talking of the same person, but I saw a special awhile back about a some band leader who mysteriously dissapeared (Glenn Miller you say).  After all that repetitive backgounrd info about the war and such, when they finally got to what the program was about, the people doing the research concluded he was downed by jettisoned Lancaster bombs in the early morning- the Lancasters returning to base because of navigational or weather problems, I forget which.

[BFMF]

I've seen the documentary, although it's been years and years so I forget all the details

But what are the chances that Glen Miller's plane could have been under a bunch of lancasters as they dropped their bombs

How do they know he was even there? It could have been mechanical failure somewhere else

[Hagar]

[quote]Hagar, I'm not sure if you know, and perhaps we're not even talking of the same person, but I saw a special awhile back about a some band leader who mysteriously dissapeared (Glenn Miller you say).

[BFMF]

According to the report it was not directly hit by a bomb but went out of control due to the blast effects

Were the bombs exploding in mid-air

[Hagar]

Were the bombs exploding in mid-air

No Andrew. They exploded under the water. These weren't hand grenades. The Lancaster was capable of carrying the largest bombs ever made at the time. If you've ever seen a depth charge explode you will get the general idea. If a light aircraft was at low altitude above that lot it would have been like flying through a hurricane.