Bath Postal Museum

DIGITAL COLLECTIONS

Le Bourget, France, 1946

2002-039-121 

This ambulance envelope addressed to London was posted by the French Post Office in Paris on 18^th Sep 1946 and contained the remains of a postal item salvaged from the crash of an Air France Douglas DC3 plane F-BAXD which had taken off from Le Bourget Airport for London on 4^th September 1946.  On take-off from Le Bourget, the plane lost power and the pilot J. Corvaisier was unable to gain sufficient height before hitting a building and crashing the plane, killing the crew.  The ambulance envelope is shown here with a newspaper clipping of 5^th September 1946, the washed off Air Mail label, and a French printed label in black advising delay due to an air crash: “SERVICE POSTAL FRANÇAIS / Correspondance retardée / par accident d’Avion. / Prière ce no pas taxer.”