Jimmie Angel's plane

Hello Hivernauts

I want to share with you the story of one of the most emblematic airplanes in the history of Venezuelan aviation. This is the plane of the famous American aviator, Jimmie Angel.

The Flamingo plane "Rio Caroni" was one of the planes bought by the pilot and jungle adventurer Jimmie Angel, in his search for the "river of gold", which he claimed to see in the Auyantepuy plateau, a 3,000 meters high mountain located in the Canaima National Park in the State of Bolivar, Venezuela.

It is from this flat-topped mountain that Angel Falls, the world's highest waterfall at 979 meters, is named after Jimmie Angel, who was the first to report the existence of this waterfall.

In December 1936, Angel informed his investors in the United States that he had purchased a Flamingo airplane, which he had named "The Caroní River", in honor of the river that flows from south to north until it meets the Orinoco River and which was used as his main visual navigation guide in Canaima National Park.

On October 9, 1937, at 11 am, Jimmie Angel took off in his plane in the Flamingo "Rio Caroní" accompanied by his wife Marie, Gustavo Henny and Miguel Delgado. Together they would make a risky attempt to find a safe landing zone to explore the summit of Auyantepuy and find their "river of gold".

Angel decided on a place that seemed to offer the best possibilities. He cut the ignition and gasoline and touched down gently, rolling a few meters without problems, until the wheels, especially the left one, sank in a muddy area covered with grasses, stopping the plane abruptly and the propeller and engine buried in the mud, leaving the plane with its tail in the air. Neither the plane nor the crew suffered major damage, only some minor bumps and a broken fuel line.

They tried to move the plane without success, two days later, when it became evident that there was no gold and given that "El Río Caroní" was trapped in the mud, the crew decided to abandon the plane and start their way back to the base, descending the mountain in a long way that took them 11 days.

The Flamingo "Río Caroní" would remain in that place for 33 more years. In 1964, the Venezuelan government declared Jimmie Angel's plane as a National Historic Monument on September 27, 1964, and recommended to take it out of the mud and place it on a base and carry out the necessary conservation works.

The rescue mission was accomplished in nine days, between February 6 and February 15, 1970. Once rescued from the Auyantepuy, with the promise of returning it back to its place of origin, the Metal Flamingo "Rio Caroni" underwent a restoration process that lasted 60 days, and was exhibited in several air bases of the country on the occasion of the "Jubilee Year of the Venezuelan Aviation".

Many protests arose in the State of Bolivar because the aircraft had not been returned after the restoration. It would not be until 10 years after its rescue, in 1980, that the original Flamingo "Río Caroní" would be returned to the State of Bolivar. But it was not returned to the Auyantepuy, today the original aircraft survives in a garden just outside the passenger air terminal of the Tomas de Heres National Airport in Ciudad Bolivar, with its wheels mounted on bases.

I have had the fortune to see this plane up close since I was a child and know all its history through time. That's why today I have brought these photos I took for you so you can get to know first hand this spectacular piece of history that graces the airport of Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela.

Thanks for reading!