In the wake of the recent tragedies in Arlington and Philadelphia which have caused flight anxiety among the nation I was inspired to revisit the unlikely story of Ernest Hemingway and his wife having survived two plane crashes in Africa, back to back.
In 1954 as a Christmas present, Hemingway had commissioned a pilot to fly him and his wife, Mary Welsh, on a sightseeing tour of Uganda. They were touring a little too close to the ground when their Cessna clipped a telegraph wire and plummeted into the river below inhabited by crocodiles. They managed to make their way ashore and, not knowing the potential length of their stay, rationed their whiskey and beer for the night. The next morning a tourism boat rescued them and brought them to a local town. They were ready to leave Uganda and so boarded a flight. Just after take-off that plane too crashed. In the ensuing chaos the pilot kicked out a window and pulled Mary to safety while Ernest was too big to get through. He ended up breaking the door open using his head which resulted in a fractured skull and concussion. While healing from the event, Hemingway drafted a letter to his lawyer after months without being able to contact him due to his injuries.
“Couldn’t write letters much on acc’t of right arm which was burned to the bone third degree and it would cramp up on me (still does a little but all burns ok),” he wrote. “But fingers burned and left hand third degree too, so couldn’t type.” While those injuries were healing, he reported persisting internal wounds. “The trouble is inside where right kidney was ruptured and liver and spleen injured,” he wrote. “I am weak from so much internal bleeding. Have been a good boy and tried to rest.”
He further explained Mary had broken several ribs and her memory had suffered from the crash. Today we call that a TBI or Traumatic Brain Injury.
When they finally made their way to Entebbe by car, reporters had caught up with them. They found Hemingway holding a bunch of bananas and a bottle of gin as he regaled them with the terrifying tale, stoic, as if unphased by the harrowing events. He joked that his wife’s snoring had attracted elephants to their camp.
“We held our breath about two hours while an elephant 12 paces away was silhouetted in the moonlight, listening to my wife’s snores,”
Hemingway and his wife were both covered in bandages.
