MovieChat Forums > Island in the Sky (1953) Discussion > Origins of the Gann story

Origins of the Gann story

posted 19 years ago by carpevitae
19 replies | jump to latest

Even though there is a disclaimer in the beginning of the movie stating that this is a work of fiction, Gann based this story upon an incident that occurred to Northeast Air Lines Pilots under contract to the Army Air Corps. The actual events were pretty much as depicted in the film. In the early 80's I flew with men who were the copilots to the characters in the movie, including one who was the son of one of the characters. They were by that time merged into Delta Air Lines. By now, the story will only live through the telling by the third or fourth generation of pilots, my contemporaries. I'm very pleased that the movie has had an airing, so that people can see these heros, even though the audience believes their existence to have been a fiction.

I think the movie stands out, in part, because the actors realized their responsibility to men who at that time were still living to depict accurately their trials, faults and triumphs.

[–] aiim 19 years ago

My version of events is slightly different. When I was an Air Explorer in Tulsa OK in the mid to late '50s, the squadron was sponsored by American Airlines (Tulsa was their main prop airliner overhaul base) I remember being told that it was an AA pilot who went down and, yes some of our counselors knew the principals in the real story. That story was recounted in Ernie Gann's autobiography, "Fate is the Hunter" (Not to be confused with the movie of the same name which WAS fictional). That book also had the genesis of "The High and the Mighty". That story was a "might have been" based on a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco which was discovered to have had a in flight failure of a elevator hinge - if memory serves my right - which did NOT affect the flight - but could have. Also notice the American Airlines AA separated by an eagle as the pilots' cap badges! Mr.Gann was an American Airlines pilot until after WW2 when he quit to go with a new airline, forfeiting his seniority. The new airline went belly up and so he turned to writing.

[–] Swift-12 19 years ago

Interesting! I just saw this film for the first time and was very impressed by it.
The one little thing that bothered me was the basic premise... the emergency landing was so very far into the interior and very distant from the searchers who of course had to watch their own fuel comsumption. I guess this seemed odd to me because the first plane had already been up in the air long before they got into trouble, so it seems like their available fuel would've been much less. In other words, it doesn't seem like they would have wandered this great distance.
Or a similar question came to my mind ... why would they HAVE to fly until their gas ran low? Why not attempt a landing sooner before they strayed so deep into unknown territory? (Yes, I do recall John Wayne's line about the terrain being more flat and therefore safer to land. But still .... )

I'd appreciate any thoughts or comments.
Thanks for starting this thread!

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[–] batkins-1 19 years ago

Remember......enjoying movies is all about
suspension of disbelief. Even true stories
are embroidered a little for dramatic effect.

[–] carpevitae 19 years ago

I'm a little shaky on this without pulling out the book and referencing it, but I think the original premise was a plane returning stateside. It probably would have come from Goose Bay or Sondestrom. It got just so far before finding itself lost, and then turned for the relative safety of weather away from the front and multiple emegency landing opportunities on frozen lakes. The rescue aircraft faced range and mapping problems because they started from stateside bases.

To batkins-1, you are entirely right. Movies are in part about suspension of disbelief. Gann himself had a tough time reconciling the re-scipting of his stories (reference his book Hostage to Fortune). We shouldn't take a "fictional" retelling of a "fictional" story all too seriously. I guess what we are doing here is using the movie as a lens, a blenko lens if you will, to vaguely glimpse the lives of men whose heroism was as natural for them as it is a wonder to us. Just extrapolating and reminiscing about "the last great generation."

My thanks to the thoughtful people who have engaged this web.

[–] Swift-12 17 years ago

Thanks again for starting this thread. I overlooked your reply from last year. Your observation makes sense ("The rescue aircraft faced range and mapping problems because they started from stateside bases")

I wonder if Gann's autobiography is still around (referenced by aiim in this thread). Sounds like it'd be a great read.
I enjoyed this movie much more than THE HIGH AND MIGHTY, even though directed by the same man. William Wellman loved flying, but didn't capture that excitement on film nearly as well in HIGH AND MIGHTY as he did here. Wayne is good in both films in roles that are not so characteristic for him.

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[–] Bruce7 7 years ago

https://www.amazon.com/Fate-Hunter-Ernest-K-Gann/dp/0671636030

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1519479034/ref=pd_sim_14_5?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1519479034&pd_rd_r=D5Z2KGJH7FR520JK29N6&pd_rd_w=ixpCE&pd_rd_wg=QraZ7&psc=1&refRID=D5Z2KGJH7FR520JK29N6

Can you fly this plane?
Surely u cant be serious
I am serious,and dont call me Shirley

[–] Swift-12 7 years ago

Thanks. My library has a copy of FATE IS THE HUNTER (which I've checked out) and also another autobiography, A Hostage to Fortune (https://www.amazon.com/Hostage-Fortune-Autobiography-Ernest-Gann/dp/0971687129/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1480530295&sr=1-8)

And he wrote many others, including THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY. He was fairly prolific and a good storyteller at that, according to the reviews. (Amazon's list of work: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&text=Ernest+K+Gann&search-alias=books&field-author=Ernest+K+Gann&sort=relevancerank )

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[–] Bruce7 7 years ago

Thanks

Can you fly this plane?
Surely u cant be serious
I am serious,and dont call me Shirley

[–] L_Forster 17 years ago

It might also be that planes in a search and rescue might not fly in a straight line, varying their course to cover as much territory as possible. This could account for a greater fuel consumption.

[–] joeglidden 17 years ago

Although the story was weak on aircraft procedure (“knots per hour” was a line given by the navigator and their radio technique was sloppy), the story is otherwise plausible. Being above a solid deck of clouds, they would not be able to judge their true ground track without radio beacons. An unpredicted tailwind could have blown them far from their intended route. Not knowing where they were, they would not drop down thru the cloud layer for fear of hitting something. They would have continued east hoping to find an opening or get their bearings by radio beacon. Finally, airframe ice and fuel starvation forced them to drop down despite the dangers.

[–] Swift-12 17 years ago

Thanks for weighing in with those comments. Your observations make sense along with carpevitae who pointed out that the searchers were flying in from one direction while the lost flight had approached from a different angle.
I guess I'm picking over the details only because I was intrigued to hear this was based on a real search mission.

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[–] Piafredux 12 years ago

Gann's book explains that at the latitude the Corsair was flying and at which it emergency landed - the same latitude the search planes had to cover - compasses went haywire from magnetic anomalies, which made it impossible for the downed Corsair to report its position accurately, if at all, and made it impossible for the search planes to plot and repeat their search courses, so that the searches were flown willy-nilly on nothing more than hope and faith born of loyalty to Dooley and his crew. Foul weather prevented the Corsair's navigator from taking a sun fix and the magnetic anomalies that sent its compass awry deprived him of dead-reckoning navigation, so that Dooley simply determined to fly into an unmapped region of Labrador believed to have level landing ground, so that he might let down safely from the overcast.

I was a small child when I first saw 'Island In The Sky,' and Dooley's nickname for his C-47 - the Corsair - fooled me into believing that all C-47's were named Corsairs. This had me vexed for some months, perhaps for some years, since I'd soon also learned of the Vought F4U Corsair fighter, so that it took a while for me to get this distinction sorted out in my mind.

[–] dannieboy20906 9 years ago

This comes years after the post I'm replying to, but someone may read this far and see it.

Dooley has a conversation with the navigator near the beginning during which Dooley says he thinks they are farther south than the navigator things they are. When they figure out where they are they realize they are well past their intended landing point, Goose Bay. They cannot raise Goose Bay so they have no way of navigating back to it with a cloud deck below them. They must go on to Presque Isle, their alternate.

The dialogue also makes it clear that they began in Greenland. Thule has been the largest base that we had there, but during WW2 we had one near the southern tip of Greenland. This would be within easy flying distance of Goose Bay and secure flying distance of Presque Isle provided that winds were not too strong and in the wrong direction. They talk about the winds in the voice over dialogue.

The search planes are flying north from Presque Isle. I think they are far enough north that they are actually closer to Goose Bay, but they need to return to Presque Isle after their search run. A round trip from Presque Isle to the search area stretches a C-47 to near its limit.

[–] Swift-12 9 years ago

Very good background. It's been 10 years now -- I should rewatch it and keep close attention on those first minutes.

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[–] CUTiger78 (21) 3 years ago

FYI, based on dialogue in the movie. Dooley's flight originated at Sondy. Somebody on Dooley's crew suggested returning to their departure point and the response mentioned not wanting to fly up that fjord in the dark. Sondestrom Air Base is located at the north end of Sondestrom Fjord in Greenland. As mentioned, during WW2 we had an airfield near the southern tip of Greenland called Bluie 1 West. It was on the relative flat land near the southern tip of Greenland.
How do I know any of this? I was a USAF C-141 pilot, 1980-1992. Landed at Sondy a number of times, made the trip from Sondy to Goose Bay at least once (we found it!), and flew by the old B1W (now Narsarsuaq Airport) on almost every NAT crossing.

[–] theecatwoman 17 years ago

this movie is about my grandfather, but he flew for American Airlines. If you happen to have any info on Lac O'Connor, I would love to know! I am doing lots of family history research. Thanks. J O'Connor

[–] notorious918 10 years ago

I am curios to find out how your research went eight years later?

I hope you found Lac. Can we get an update?

[–] moift 10 years ago

Yes I did! I just moved so I dont have the location. There is a gentleman in all these comments who has lat/long. It's straight up into Canada from I think west of Toronto. I will double check. Maybe the rescue video mentions the exact location. Feel free to email me at: [email protected]. : )

[–] maxepr 15 years ago

This was an American Airlines C-87, not Northeast. A Northeast airplane found them first and thought he could rescue them ;however, when he landed, he also was a member the downed crew.