Bath Postal Museum

Crete, 1936

Description

2002-039-029

This cover from Bangalore datestamped 15th Aug 1936 was put aboard a plane on the Australia to London route. At Alexandria the mail would have been transferred to the Imperial Airways Short S.17 Kent Scipio Class flying boat SCIPIO, G-ABFA for the flight across the Mediterranean Sea. On reaching Mirabella Bay in Crete on 22 August 1936, the plane nosed into the sea while a landing was attempted and sank. The mail was quickly recovered and dried out before being forwarded to its various destinations. This cover addressed to Germany should have received a label outlining the crash and the resulting delay in German.