Originally published on 27 March 2014, so I guess they’re not really that newly discovered anymore. I’m not back to republishing the content that was on my blogspot page as anything else on the planecrashgirl.ca blog was lost when I questioned the increase in costs. This does mean that after this post there will be a few book reviews in a row, but I am also working on editing my thesis crash by crash to share on the Gander Airport Historical Society page (they have been waiting patiently since this time last year for these), then share here.
Here’s the original post:
Recently, another aviation archaeologist emailed me to tell me of some pictures on ebay. Original press photos from the 03 October 1946 American Overseas Airline crash in Stephenville, Newfoundland. The images are from historicimages.com who have a lot of amazing images for sale. A few more Newfoundland pictures, and a couple of aviation pictures of Labrador. It would have been nice to pick up all of them, but my research budget is pretty tight at the moment. Check them out and see what they have to offer. Anyway, the pictures are amazing. I have put the stock images up, so they are watermarked, but you can see a lot of the detail. On the back of each reads:
812302 . . . . . . . . . . NEW YORK BUREAU
AIRVIEW OF BURNING NEWFOUNDLAND WRECKAGE
NEWFOUNDLAND. THIS AIRVIEW OF THE BURNING
WRECKAGE OF TRANSATLANTIC AIRLINER WHICH
CRASHED IN NEWFOUNDLAND THIS MORNING (10/3)
WAS TAKEN BY NAVIGATOR ROBERT ALBER OF AIR
FRANCE PLANE THAT FEW OVER THE SCENE JUST
ONE HOUR AFTER THE PLANE CRASHED. ALL PASS-
ENGERS AND CREW MEMBERS ARE BELIEVED TO
HAVE PERISHED, THOUGH RESCUE TEAMS ARE ON
THEIR WAY TO THE WRECKAGE.
CREDIT LINE (ACME) 10/3/46 (EO)
These were taken an hour after the crash, the top picture showing the top of the hill, and shows how the wreck itself didn’t do nearly as much damage to the hill as the subsequent blasting to cover the wreckage. The blasting damage is much more visible below:
All said, this is a great find, and absolutely amazing images of the site. I hope to share these with the folks at the Stephenville Regional Museum of Art and History the next time I’m out that way.
(updated note: I have not yet been able to give a copy of these images to the Stephenville Regional Museum of Art and History because I have not had the extra money available to produce and frame quality copies of the images. I still plan to as soon as I can afford it.)