Rescue at Sea

Over the murky North Atlantic one night last week, the engines of a Super Constellation coughed and sputtered. One failed, then a second, then a third. At last, some 500 miles off the coast of Ireland, Pilot John D. Murray of the chartered Flying Tiger transport radioed the message: "One engine left. Preparing to ditch."

Below, 30-mile gales were churning the Atlantic into loft whitecaps. On impact, the plane's left wing snapped off, and the 76 people aboard--many U.S. paratroopers en route to duty in Europe--were catapulted forward. Thanks to the pilot's skill, the cabin stayed in one piece. Said one awed survivor: "God had his hands on the controls." One couple leaped hand in hand from the escape hatch, only to be separated in the sea. Two children were tossed out before the cabin went under, but were never seen again. Seven men linked arms to stay afloat, but four slipped beneath the waves.

A single life raft, built to hold 25 people, floated within reach (four others sank with the severed wing or drifted away), and onto it clambered 51 men and women. As water sloshed into the bobbing raft, Navigator Samuel Nicholson screamed, "Bail, for God's sake!" One man tried to scoop the water out with his wallet. For the most part, discipline was excellent, but there were exceptions. One survivor tried to pull a woman aboard, but "men poured over us. She kept crying, 'Please let me on the raft,' but men kept coming. I couldn't hold on. She disappeared."

After more than five hours, a 14-ship rescue flotilla from five nations converged on the scene, and the Swiss freighter Celerina began taking on survivors. Three on the raft died of injuries. Twenty-one others, most of them painfully burned, were airlifted by helicopter to a Canadian aircraft carrier. Of the 76 persons aboard the plane, 48 were saved.

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