#0774 >> L ́ Atlantique du Sud Traversé <<

Lisabonne à l'ilot St.Peter et St.Paul,

Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho, 1922

Fairey IIIC seaplane

"The Crossing of the South Atlantic by Air"
On March 30, 1922, the Portuguese pilots Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral took off from Lisbon, from the beach at Torre de Belem, at the mouth of the Rio Tejo in the Atlantic, to fly in stages over the Canary Islands, Cape Verde and Brazil Coast. With the Fairey IIIC seaplane they started on April 18th from Porto Praia in the Canary Islands in order to reach the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha in the best case. But they only reached an emergency stopover, the St. Peter and St. Paul Rock with the last drop of fuel. The fierce headwind took its fuel toll. The landing in rough seas failed - a swimmer broke and the plane sank.
The Portuguese government sent a replacement aircraft by ship, which arrived on May 6, 1922. However, the plane could not be unloaded at the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Rock, but had to be shipped to Fernando de Noronha. From there they first recorded the flight route back to the rock in order to really have covered the entire route by plane. But this time the engine failed. They were drifting in the open sea 170 nautical miles from their destination, undiscovered for more than 15 hours, until a freighter discovered the two pilots at night. Both swimmers were damaged in the meantime and they had to give up the plane again - it sank before their eyes. The public of Portugal and Brazil took a great interest in the tragedy. A third machine named "Santa Cruz" was brought to Fernando de Noronha by a Portuguese military ship on June 2, 1922. With this they made it from June 5th to
June 17, 1922 in four stages to Rio de Janeiro. In 80 days of travel they had taken a little over 60 flight hours.