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The U.S. Navy balloon A-5598 was an American naval free balloon which went off-course and its crew of three were recorded missing for several weeks.
History
The balloon departedRockaway Naval Air Station
Naval Air Station Rockaway adjoined Fort Tilden on the western portion of the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It was established on transferred municipal property in 1917 during American involvement in World War I.
T ...
(Queens, New York) on December 13, 1920, and went missing the following day. It crash landed north of Moose Factory, Ontario (Canada).
The balloon was manned by three aeronauts, U.S. Navy Lieutenants Louis A. Kloor, Jr. (mission commander); Stephen A. Farrell (pilot);
and Walter Hinton
Walter T. Hinton (10 November 1888 – 28 October 1981) was a United States aviator.
Hinton was born in a farming family in Van Wert, Ohio. Seeing a poster urging young men to "Join the Navy and See the World", he joined the United States Navy. ...
(ground observer).
After a flight of over 25 hours the group, which had narrowly avoiding coming down in the James Bay
James Bay (french: Baie James; cr, ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, Wînipekw, dirty water) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost par ...
, was stranded in the wilderness and wandered for four days before they came upon a Cree Indian fur trader. He initially mistook the Americans for Canadian revenue agents but then guided them to safety.
The trio recovered at Moose Factory, and later were brought to the nearest town on a railway line, Mattice (Ontario) on January 11. They returned to a heroes' welcome in New York City on January 14, 1921.
An inquiry by the Navy found that the flight was legitimate and there was no misconduct by the airmen. Hinton and Kloor had written letters home which their families sold to newspapers describing the flight, which prompted the Navy to start enforcing rarely used censorship rules.
See also
*List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft before 1925
This is a list of notable accidents and incidents involving military aircraft grouped by the year in which the accident or incident occurred. Not all of the aircraft were in operation at the time. For more exhaustive lists, see the Bureau of Air ...
References
{{Reflist Balloons (aeronautics) Individual balloons (aircraft) 20th-century aviation accidents and incidents in the United States Accidents and incidents involving balloons and airships Aviation accidents and incidents in 1920 1920 disasters in the United States