“Stratocruiser Crippled at Sea; Danny Kaye, 63 Others Saved”

The Milwaukee Sentinel – Jul. 8, 1949

By: Margaret Weil

NEW YORK, July 7 – (INS) – A subdued comedian, Danny Kaye, and others who thanked “the grace of God” arrived in New York safely tonight after a giant stratocruiser survived a post-midnight 2½ mile aerial plunge above the mid-Atlantic.

Twenty-six of the original 63 passengers and crewmen arrived at LaGuardia Airport on the first of two Pan-American Airways Constellation planes that ferried them from Shannon Airport after the stratocruiser America returned safely to Ireland.

Kaye, fresh off the London vaudeville boards, did an unscheduled aisle jig when the 71 ton sky giant made its sickening dive over the Atlantic 640 miles west of Ireland.

“I never got out of bed so fast in my life,” he said upon his arrival at LaGuardia.

U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Paul V. McNutt, echoed by all, said: “The important factor was the grace of God.”

An engine of the four-engined plane America dedicated by President Truman’s daughter, Margaret, April 2, caught fire and lost a propeller before its pilot returned it to Ireland.

Kaye said the pilot, Capt. Haakon Gulbransen, of Great Neck, N. Y., “knew the propeller was going to fall off, but he didn’t know which way it would fall,” Kaye added.

“So he nosed the plane up and tilted it. When the propeller did drop off, it fell just beneath the wing. I think this showed extraordinary skill.”

Kaye was credited with reassuring the passengers in the emergency but he said upon his arrival.

“It was no time for joking. If I did joke—and I don’t think I did—it was a cover-up for the fear I had.”

Louise Brough, women’s single champion at the Wimbledon tournament in England, said, “I saw the flames in the engine and we all could feel it when the propeller dropped . . . everybody remained calm despite how they felt.”

Capt. Gulbransen landed the plane smoothly at Shannon Airport on three engines and the passengers were transferred to two Constellation planes for the resumed trip.

For more on this incident read this lengthy interview with Danny - October 2, 1949

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