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'Little Prince' author's plane wreck found after 6 decades

PARIS - A diving team has found the wreckage of author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's military plane, almost 60 years after it plunged into the Mediterranean near Marseille, French government researchers announced Wednesday.

Saint-Exupéry disappeared on a solo flight in July 1944 while photographing southern France in preparation for an Allied landing there.

Just one year before, the 44-year-old veteran pilot had published The Little Prince, which went on to become one of the best-loved books of all time.

The story of a young interplanetary traveller who cannot forget the beloved rose he left behind on his asteroid has been translated into 100 languages. Almost as famous as its tales of baobab trees and snakes are its line-drawing illustrations, also the work of Saint-Exupéry.

In 2000, a diver came across the wreckage of a small P38 aircraft off the coast of France at Marseille, near the spot where a fisherman had found a bracelet inscribed "Saint-Ex" a few years before.

France's culture ministry banned further dives at the site until October 2003, when a sanctioned team went down and recovered parts of the plane for researchers.

They since have matched the manufacturer's number from the wreckage to Saint-Exupéry's Lockheed Lightning P38, the government said Wednesday.

Researchers still have no idea what caused the experienced aviator to crash on that sunny day in 1944, said the head of the Culture Ministry, Patrick Granjean.

"We don't know why," he told reporters. "We probably never will."

Among Saint-Exupéry's other books were Wind, Sand and Stars and Night Flight, the latter of which was turned into a 1933 film starring John and Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable, Helen Hayes and Myrna Loy.

Posted by thinkum at April 7, 2004 02:17 PM