{"id":28858691,"date":"2026-10-20T11:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T09:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/jean-mermoz-aeropostale-archangel-south-atlantic-mail-pilot\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T11:46:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T09:46:06","slug":"jean-mermoz-aeropostale-archangel-south-atlantic-mail-pilot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/jean-mermoz-aeropostale-archangel-south-atlantic-mail-pilot\/","title":{"rendered":"Jean Mermoz: The A\u00e9ropostale Archangel Who Vanished at Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\r\n\r\n<style>\r\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid 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Then the signal stopped. No wreck, no bodies and no further word ever came back.<\/p>\r\n<p>At the controls was Jean Mermoz, the most famous airline pilot in France. Across a decade he had been held captive in the Sahara, stranded high in the Andes and had carried the first all-air mail across the South Atlantic. France knew him as <em>l&rsquo;Archange<\/em>, the Archangel.<\/p>\r\n<p>His story is the story of the A\u00e9ropostale, the French mail line that set out to link Toulouse with Dakar and South America by air, and which, according to the French Air Force&rsquo;s own history centre, lost at least one pilot a month in its harsh early days.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f9;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:18px 22px;margin:22px 0 26px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:700;color:#0d1117\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:18px\"><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Born:<\/strong> 9 December 1901, Aubenton (Aisne), France<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Nickname:<\/strong> l&rsquo;Archange (the Archangel)<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Employer:<\/strong> Lignes Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re, then Compagnie g\u00e9n\u00e9rale a\u00e9ropostale and Air France<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Sahara captivity:<\/strong> May 1926, freed for a ransom of 1,000 pesetas<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>South Atlantic first:<\/strong> 12&ndash;13 May 1930, Saint-Louis (Senegal) to Natal (Brazil), 21 h 10 min<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Aircraft:<\/strong> Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 28.3 floatplane <em>Comte-de-la-Vaulx<\/em><\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Disappeared:<\/strong> 7 December 1936, Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 300 <em>Croix-du-Sud<\/em>, crew of five<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Flying hours:<\/strong> 8,200<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">From Syria to the Line<\/h2>\r\n<p>Mermoz signed up for military aviation in 1920, failed his first attempts at the pilot&rsquo;s licence and finally earned it in early 1921. Posted to Syria, he survived a forced landing in the desert that ended in a days-long march back to safety. By 1924 he was out of uniform, broke and taking odd jobs in Paris.<\/p>\r\n<p>Rescue came from Toulouse. Didier Daurat, who ran operations for Pierre-Georges Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re&rsquo;s airline, gave him a test flight in autumn 1924. Mermoz showed off with aerobatics, was scolded for it and flew a sober circuit instead. He started, like every new pilot on the Line, in the workshop, then flew Breguet 14s over the Pyrenees between Toulouse and Barcelona.<\/p>\r\n<p>In late 1925 the A\u00e9ro-Club de France gave him its medal for the French pilot who had flown the most kilometres that year: 120,000 km in 800 hours.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Prisoner of the Sahara<\/h2>\r\n<p>In 1926 Mermoz moved to the Casablanca&ndash;Dakar sector, the most dangerous stretch of the route. On 22 May his engine failed and he put down on the coast in unsubdued territory with his interpreter. After walking through a sandstorm toward Cap Juby, the pair were taken prisoner by Moorish tribesmen. Mermoz was released at Cap Juby for a ransom of 1,000 pesetas.<\/p>\r\n<p>Cap Juby would soon be run by another Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re pilot, <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/saint-exupery-little-prince-pilot-disappeared-1944\/\">Antoine de Saint-Exup\u00e9ry<\/a>. The other name that runs through Mermoz&rsquo;s career is Henri Guillaumet, a friend from his air force days whom Mermoz had persuaded to join Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re in 1925. The three would become the best-known pilots of the Line.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f85JULuLm2Q\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic\">Arte&rsquo;s documentary on the Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re lines and the A\u00e9ropostale, shared by the Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re Foundation.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Night Mail and the Andes<\/h2>\r\n<p>On 10&ndash;11 October 1927, Mermoz and \u00c9lis\u00e9e N\u00e9grin flew non-stop from Toulouse to Saint-Louis in Senegal in a Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 26, a 4,270 km leg. A hoped-for continuation across the ocean ended when the propeller broke on landing.<\/p>\r\n<p>Weeks later the company, now the Compagnie g\u00e9n\u00e9rale a\u00e9ropostale, sent him to South America as chief pilot. In April 1928 he flew the first night mail between Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, and night flying became his weapon against the steamships.<\/p>\r\n<p>Then came the Andes. In early March 1929 he carried the Comte Henry de La Vaulx, president of the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration A\u00e9ronautique Internationale, over the cordillera to Chile in a Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 25, with mechanic Alexandre Collenot. On the way back, without the count, violent air currents pinned the aircraft to the ground for an emergency landing at about 4,200 m. The two men spent days repairing it, launched it down a precipice to gain flying speed and glided into Copiap\u00f3 when the radiator hoses failed again. On 15 July 1929 Mermoz and Guillaumet opened the regular Buenos Aires&ndash;Mendoza&ndash;Santiago service, partly flown on the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/potez-25\/\">Potez 25<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/latecoere-28-aeropostale-montaudran-toulouse.jpg\" alt=\"Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 28 mail plane in A\u00e9ropostale markings taking off from Montaudran aerodrome in Toulouse\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 28 in A\u00e9ropostale markings climbs away from Montaudran, Toulouse, home base of the Line. Mermoz flew the type to Africa and, fitted with floats, across the South Atlantic. Photo: Archives municipales de Toulouse \/ Public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">21 Hours to Natal<\/h2>\r\n<p>One gap remained. Between Africa and South America the mail still went by ship, taking four days. French rules banned landplanes from commercial ocean crossings, so the A\u00e9ropostale fitted a Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 28 with floats. Mermoz qualified as a seaplane pilot and, with navigator Jean Dabry and radio operator L\u00e9opold Gimi\u00e9, set closed-circuit world records for seaplanes in April 1930.<\/p>\r\n<p>On 12 May 1930 the red Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 28.3 <em>Comte-de-la-Vaulx<\/em>, named after the count who had died in an air crash in New Jersey, lifted off near Saint-Louis. On board, according to AFP, were 130 kg of mail. At dusk the crew met the &ldquo;pot au noir&rdquo;, the stormy doldrums of the intertropical convergence zone.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;Tout l&rsquo;horizon &eacute;tait noir, une sorte de mur gigantesque paraissait barrer notre route&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Jean Mermoz<\/strong> &mdash; on the &ldquo;pot au noir&rdquo; during the May 1930 crossing (&ldquo;The whole horizon was black, a kind of gigantic wall seemed to bar our way&rdquo;), as quoted by AFP<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>He threaded the floatplane through at about 50 m above the waves. After 21 hours and 10 minutes the <em>Comte-de-la-Vaulx<\/em> settled on the Potengi river at Natal on 13 May. The mail was transferred to another aircraft for Rio, Montevideo, Buenos Aires and Santiago. For the first time, a letter had crossed the South Atlantic entirely by air.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/latecoere-28-3-floatplane-south-atlantic-mail.jpg\" alt=\"Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 28.3 floatplane on the water, the type used for the first South Atlantic air mail crossing\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 28.3 floatplane, the variant that carried Mermoz, Dabry and Gimi\u00e9 from Saint-Louis to Natal. This period photo shows the type, not necessarily the Comte-de-la-Vaulx itself. Photo: Annuaire de L&rsquo;A\u00e9ronautique 1931 \/ Public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<p>Getting home was harder. The heavy floatplane failed to get off the water 52 times. When it finally lifted in July, an oil leak forced Mermoz to ditch roughly 900 km off the African coast. The aviso <em>Phoc\u00e9e<\/em> rescued the crew and the mail, but the <em>Comte-de-la-Vaulx<\/em> sank while under tow.<\/p>\r\n<p>Weeks later, testing a modified Lat\u00e9 28 for the North Atlantic, the aircraft broke up around him over Capens, south of Toulouse. He got out of the wreckage and survived on a torn parachute.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ySpCd21ENdA\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic\">France 3 Occitanie&rsquo;s &ldquo;Histoires du ciel&rdquo; archive: interviews with navigator Jean Dabry and with Mermoz&rsquo;s mother.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Archangel and His Machines<\/h2>\r\n<p>The A\u00e9ropostale went into liquidation in 1931 and was folded into the new Air France in 1933. Mermoz kept pushing for landplanes over the ocean. In January 1933 he crossed the South Atlantic in Ren\u00e9 Couzinet&rsquo;s trimotor Couzinet 70 <em>Arc-en-Ciel<\/em>, and from 1934 he flew the four-engined Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 300 flying boat on the route, and served as Air France&rsquo;s inspector general.<\/p>\r\n<p>He also grew openly critical of the aircraft he was asked to fly. On 10 February 1936 his long-time mechanic Collenot was lost with the whole crew of the Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 301 <em>Ville-de-Buenos-Aires<\/em>. In politics he drifted to the nationalist right, joining the Croix-de-Feu and becoming vice-president of the Parti social fran\u00e7ais in 1936.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;L&rsquo;accident, pour nous, ce serait de mourir dans un lit&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Jean Mermoz<\/strong> &mdash; quoted by AFP (&ldquo;For us, the accident would be to die in a bed&rdquo;)<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Last Crossing<\/h2>\r\n<p>On the morning of 7 December 1936 the <em>Croix-du-Sud<\/em>, registration F-AKGF, left Dakar for Natal. It soon turned back with trouble on the rear starboard engine, whose propeller would not go into coarse pitch. Rather than wait for a replacement aircraft and delay the mail, Mermoz took off again after a quick repair.<\/p>\r\n<p>About four hours later came the message about the rear starboard engine, and then silence. With Mermoz were co-pilot Alexandre Pichodou, navigator Henri \u00c9zan, radio operator Edgar Cruveilher and mechanic Jean Lavidalie. Searches found nothing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/latecoere-300-croix-du-sud-mermoz-flying-boat.jpg\" alt=\"Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 300 flying boat Croix-du-Sud moored on the water with crew on the hull and its name on the bow\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 300 <em>Croix-du-Sud<\/em> before departing Cherbourg, its name painted on the bow. Mermoz and four crewmen disappeared aboard this flying boat on 7 December 1936. Photo: Agence de presse Meurisse via Gallica (BnF) \/ Public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<p>The most widely cited theory is that the reduction gear on the repaired rear engine failed and the propeller tore loose, damaging the tail or the control runs behind it. A Uruguayan parliamentary commission alleged sabotage in 1941, but no evidence has ever supported that claim.<\/p>\r\n<p>On 13 December, Mermoz and the entire crew were cited in the order of the Nation at the request of L\u00e9on Blum&rsquo;s government.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;Cr&eacute;ateur, aux prix d&rsquo;efforts surhumains, de l&rsquo;aviation commerciale transoc&eacute;anique, a fait de son nom un symbole et de sa carri&egrave;re une longue suite d&rsquo;exploits.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Citation &agrave; l&rsquo;ordre de la Nation<\/strong> &mdash; 13 December 1936 (&ldquo;Creator, through superhuman efforts, of transoceanic commercial aviation, he made his name a symbol and his career a long series of exploits&rdquo;), as reproduced on French Wikipedia<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>The citation records that he was on his 24th crossing of the Atlantic, on the postal line he had been the first to trace.<\/p>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">What the Archangel Left Behind<\/h2>\r\n<p>Mermoz logged 8,200 flying hours. Within weeks of his loss, Maryse Basti\u00e9 flew the South Atlantic solo in an aircraft named after him. Joseph Kessel published his biography <em>Mermoz<\/em> in 1938, and Jean Bugatti named the Bugatti Atlantic in his honour.<\/p>\r\n<p>His name is now on streets, schools and a neighbourhood of Dakar, on a peak of the Fitz Roy massif in Patagonia, and in Jean-Jacques Annaud&rsquo;s 1995 IMAX film <em>Wings of Courage<\/em>, where Val Kilmer played him alongside Craig Sheffer as Guillaumet and Tom Hulce as Saint-Exup\u00e9ry.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K3JNfTaLSUU\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic\">Archive footage of the Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 300 Croix-du-Sud arriving at Les Mureaux, France, in February 1934 after a 20,000 km trip.<\/p>\r\n<p>Airliners now cross the same ocean in a few hours, far above the pot au noir. Mermoz flew through it at 50 m, at night, by full moon, so that a letter could reach Santiago a few days sooner.<\/p>\r\n<p><em>Sources: French Wikipedia (Jean Mermoz), English Wikipedia (Jean Mermoz), L&rsquo;Envol des Pionniers (Jean Mermoz chronology), IRSEM\/CReA &ldquo;7 d\u00e9cembre 1936: Mermoz&rdquo;, AFP<\/em><\/p>\r\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\r\n\r\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>Who was Jean Mermoz?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Jean Mermoz (1901 to 1936) was a French airline pilot and the best-known figure of the A\u00e9ropostale mail line. He flew the Casablanca to Dakar sector, pioneered night mail and Andes crossings in South America, and in May 1930 made the first commercial air mail crossing of the South Atlantic. The French nicknamed him l'Archange, the Archangel.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>When did Jean Mermoz first fly the mail across the South Atlantic?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Jean Mermoz flew the first commercial air mail crossing of the South Atlantic on 12 to 13 May 1930, from Saint-Louis in Senegal to Natal in Brazil. With navigator Jean Dabry and radio operator L\u00e9opold Gimi\u00e9 he covered the route in 21 hours and 10 minutes in the Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 28.3 floatplane Comte-de-la-Vaulx.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Was Jean Mermoz captured in the Sahara?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. On 22 May 1926 an engine failure forced Jean Mermoz down on the coast of the western Sahara while flying the Casablanca to Dakar mail. After walking through a sandstorm toward Cap Juby he and his interpreter were taken prisoner by Moorish tribesmen. Mermoz was released at Cap Juby for a ransom of 1,000 pesetas.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How did Jean Mermoz disappear?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Jean Mermoz disappeared on 7 December 1936 aboard the Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 300 flying boat Croix-du-Sud, flying from Dakar to Natal. After an engine repair the aircraft took off again, and about four hours later the crew radioed that they were cutting the rear starboard engine. The message broke off and neither the aircraft nor its five crew were ever found.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Did Jean Mermoz know Antoine de Saint-Exup\u00e9ry and Henri Guillaumet?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. Henri Guillaumet was a friend from Mermoz's air force days whom he persuaded to join Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re in 1925, and the two opened the Buenos Aires to Santiago service across the Andes on 15 July 1929. Antoine de Saint-Exup\u00e9ry flew the same Line and ran the Cap Juby stopover, and the three became the A\u00e9ropostale's most famous pilots.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What aircraft did Jean Mermoz fly on the A\u00e9ropostale?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Jean Mermoz started on Breguet 14s between Toulouse and Barcelona, then flew Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 25, 26 and 28 mail planes in Africa and South America. He crossed the South Atlantic in the Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 28.3 floatplane, the Couzinet 70 Arc-en-Ciel trimotor and the four-engined Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 300 flying boat, in which he disappeared in 1936.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Who was Jean Mermoz?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Jean Mermoz (1901 to 1936) was a French airline pilot and the best-known figure of the A\u00e9ropostale mail line. He flew the Casablanca to Dakar sector, pioneered night mail and Andes crossings in South America, and in May 1930 made the first commercial air mail crossing of the South Atlantic. The French nicknamed him l'Archange, the Archangel.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"When did Jean Mermoz first fly the mail across the South Atlantic?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Jean Mermoz flew the first commercial air mail crossing of the South Atlantic on 12 to 13 May 1930, from Saint-Louis in Senegal to Natal in Brazil. With navigator Jean Dabry and radio operator L\u00e9opold Gimi\u00e9 he covered the route in 21 hours and 10 minutes in the Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 28.3 floatplane Comte-de-la-Vaulx.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Was Jean Mermoz captured in the Sahara?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Yes. On 22 May 1926 an engine failure forced Jean Mermoz down on the coast of the western Sahara while flying the Casablanca to Dakar mail. After walking through a sandstorm toward Cap Juby he and his interpreter were taken prisoner by Moorish tribesmen. 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He crossed the South Atlantic in the Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 28.3 floatplane, the Couzinet 70 Arc-en-Ciel trimotor and the four-engined Lat\u00e9co\u00e8re 300 flying boat, in which he disappeared in 1936.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/saint-exupery-little-prince-pilot-disappeared-1944\/\">The Pilot Who Wrote The Little Prince and Vanished<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/latecoere-631-french-flying-boat\/\">The Latecoere 631: France's Magnificent, Doomed Giant of the Skies<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/china-clipper-first-transpacific-airmail-1935\/\">The Clipper That Flew Under the Bridge<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a 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