Marooned in the Clouds
On November 19, 1946, an American C-53, flying under Army orders from Munich to Istres, France, crashlanded on a snow-covered glacier in the Swiss Alps. The eight passengers and four crew members were all Americans. Flying by instruments in a snowstorm, the pilot, Captain Ralph Tate, Jr., had suddenly caught a glimpse of icy wastes below him. Realizing that they were lost and that impassable mountains lay ahead, unhesitatingly and with consummate skill this veteran of “Hump” and Pacific flying set the plane down almost undamaged. The crash occurred at 2.30 P.M., and soon the plane’s radio touched off one of the great international rescue efforts of all time. Captain Tate’s mother, one of the eight passengers, gives us this stirring account of the incident as she saw it. Harcourt, Brace and Company will publish her complete story later this year.