All at sea - the pair who stole trawler to get home(Drunken Irishmen)

Times Online ^ | 17 July 2006 | Joanna Bale

[aculeus]

Douglas Corrigan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan (January 22, 1907–December 9, 1995) was an American aviator born in Galveston, Texas. In 1938, after a transcontinental flight from Long Beach, California, to New York, he flew from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, to Ireland, even though he was supposed to be returning to Long Beach. He claimed that his unauthorized flight was due to a navigational error, caused by heavy cloud cover that obscured landmarks and low-light conditions, causing him to misread his compass. Corrigan, however, was a skilled aircraft mechanic (he was one of the builders of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis) and a habitual risk-taking maverick; he had made several modifications to his own plane, preparing it for transatlantic flight. Between 1935 and 1937, he applied several times, unsuccessfully, for permission to make a nonstop flight from New York to Ireland, and it is likely that his "navigational error" was a protest against government "red tape"; however, he never publicly acknowledged having flown to Ireland intentionally.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Corrigan


[In my opinion he did 'pretend' to make the mistake. In those years trans-Atlantic flights were still newsworthy and his whacky tale cheered up the Depression weary country.]

[aculeus]

NYC welcome parade and a classic headline.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

In my opinion he did 'pretend' to make the mistake.

It sounds very much like it!!

Though, on a slightly different incident, a sane explanation I have heard of those five planes that went missing in the Bermuda Triangle suggests genuine "navigational error"!

[Irish_Thatcherite]

I learn something new every day!!