Amelia Earhart’s Irish Sojourn

On May 20, 1932 Amelia Earhart set off in her Lockheed Vega from Newfoundland intending to fly to Paris. Nearly 15 hours later, she landed in Robert Gallaghers’ cow pasture in Ballyarnott, in Derry, Northern Ireland, instead, thereby becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
Mrs. Gallagher told the BBC about that day [...]

Earhart in Derry, Ireland, 1932. Courtesy NASM.
On May 20, 1932 Amelia Earhart set off in her Lockheed Vega from Newfoundland intending to fly to Paris. Nearly 15 hours later, she landed in Robert Gallaghers’ cow pasture in Ballyarnott, in Derry, Northern Ireland, instead, thereby becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
Mrs. Gallagher told the BBC about that day in this 1935 recording: “About two o’clock we heard an aeroplane. And soon afterwards we saw a great red monoplane over the house, flying very low. It circled around a couple of times, and then made for a big field at the back of the house and landed…. The first farmhand who got to the aeroplane saw that there was a woman in it, and asked her where she’d come from. She said America…. After a minute or two I ...