Aviation Buff Believes French Team Crossed Atlantic, But
Crashed
On May 8, 1927, as Charles Lindbergh waited for a clearing in
the fog on Long Island to launch for Paris in the Spirit of St.
Louis, his rival, French World War I Ace Charles Nungesser,
departed with navigator François Coli in the opposite
direction. The French team never arrived in New York. Now, a French
aviation enthusiast has concluded that their biplane, the Oiseau
Blanc (or "White Bird"), flew over the south coast of Newfoundland
before ditching off the shore of the Canadian mainland.