When Amelia Earhart came to stay in Derry… by accident [Video]

On May 21, 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean, landing in Culmore, in County Derry.

The feat had been famously achieved by Charles Lindberg five years earlier when he flew from New York to Paris.

On May 20, 1932, Earhart, from Atchison, Kansas, took off at 10:51 pm (Irish time) from Harbour Grace, in Newfoundland. Her destination was to be Paris but her flight was disrupted by a petrol leak which forced her to land in Ireland.

According to the Irish Press, Earhart landed “in a small field on the side of a hill overlooked by the Donegal Mountains, near Derry” at 2 pm on Saturday, May 21.

The local newspapers at the time commented that as the people in the surrounding area rushed to see what the commotion was and to greet the pilot, they said that Earhart did not …