April 15, 2004 For Americans, it's Amelia Earhart. For the French, it was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The disappearance of author and pilot Saint-Exupéry made its way from the annals of aviation history into legend after he disappeared 60 years ago while on a World War II reconnaissance mission. Last week the muck was literally cleared away from the mystery when a French archeology team identified the remains of his plane.
After the wreckage was given an acid bath, serial numbers matching manufacturer's records for Saint-Exupéry's plane were found on the craft's fuselage, and the mystery of the author's disappearance was as good as solved.
In some circles anyway.
The archaeologists' recent discovery confirms that the plane, a Lockheed Lightning P-38, crashed into the Mediterranean a few miles off the coast of Marseilles, which would have been on the return route for Saint-Exupéry's mission. But for history buffs and fans of his literature, one looming question still remains: Why did the author's plane crash?
Since his disappearance in 1944, speculation on what happened to Saint-Exupéry's aircraft has run the gamut from suicide to the theory that a German fighter plane may have forced him down.
According to an AP report, the body of the recovered craft did not appear to be damaged by artillery fire; but experts can't rule out that possibility—or others, like mechanical failure—since the wreckage has not yet been thoroughly examined.
An analysis of the trajectory of the plane's impact and the specifics of the trail of debris could give some insight into what actually happened.
"At a high rate of speed and small angle of attack (almost straight down), there's a large degree of fragmentation but the debris stays in a small area," said John Fish, vice president of American Underwater Search and Survey. Conversely, a larger angle of attack would cause the plane to break up as it hit the surface, and debris would be spread over a larger area.
"It's impossible to say if he was shot down, if he lost consciousness, or if he had a mechanical accident," Patrick Grandjean, of the national Department of Subaquatic and Submarine Archaeological Research, told the AP.
According to Jeff Rhodes, communications specialist and spokesman for Lockheed Martin, the P38—the hotshot plane of its day— was not an easy plane to fly. It's possible that a pilot error could have contributed to Saint-Exupéry's crash.
Over 10,000 P38s were manufactured, and for America's top Aces (pilots who downed five or more planes), the Lockheed Lightning was the aircraft of choice. "It was a very hot airplane," said Rhodes. "It was a high performance fighter of its day—you really had to learn how to fly it."
Mechanical problems might also have contributed to the author's wreck.
"Sometimes parts just failed," said Rhodes. "There's just no way of telling. It could have been any number of factors. Weather conditions for that day could point to icing" (a condition that could have forced the plane down, according to Rhodes).
On July 31, 1944, Saint-Exupéry's plane was reported missing on what would be his last flight for the French government: a reconaissance mission out of Corsica for the collection of information on German troops in the Rhone River Valley. He was never heard from again.
The mystery began to unravel in 1998 when a fisherman working off the coast of Marseilles pulled up part of a flight suit and an identification bracelet bearing the inscriptions "Saint-Ex" and "Consuelo," the latter name referring to the author's wife.
Then, in 2000, scuba diver Luc Vanrell began researching downed planes in the same area and felt he had his finger on the right one, according to an AP report. But securing rights for the expedition took time and it wasn't until this past fall that France's Culture Ministry granted a team of marine archeologists permission to bring portions of the plane up. It was on a portion of one of these pieces that the serial number "2734 L" was uncovered and verified.
"This was our holy grail," Philippe Castellano, president of Aero-ReL.I.C., an organization that helped authorities identify the debris, told the Associated Press. "We never even imagined this."
Saint-Exupéry's children's story The Little Prince is thought by some to be the third-highest selling book of all time, right behind the Bible and Das Kapital by Karl Marx. But it's his other works—chronicling the trials and tribulations of tough-as-nails fighter pilots in World War II—like Wind, Sand and Stars, and Flight to Arras, that resonate with adventure enthusiasts and WWII history buffs. In January 2003, Wind, Sand and Stars was named the number one adventure book of all time by the editors of Outside.
