A group of vintage airplanes recreating a historic transcontinental route resumed its journey this week after being detained in Ethiopia and accounting for all its pilots. A day later, a Stearman crashed but no one was injured. The participants in the Vintage Air Rally include about a dozen open-cockpit airplanes from around the world along with a few modern-era planes and two helicopters flying as support crews. The pilots and passengers were detained at the Gambela airport after arriving from Sudan, Reuters reported Thursday. Ethiopian aviation authorities said they kept the group of 47 people from checking into their hotel on Wednesday because they didn’t have advance permission to land in Gambela, according to the report. But on Thursday, rally officials said everything was ironed out and the planes arrived in Kenya on Friday, the BBC reported. In the meantime, one of the U.K. pilots, 72-year-old Maurice Kirk, reached Gambela safely after he and his Piper Cub could not be located en route from Sudan.
The air rally, sanctioned by the Fdration Aronautique Internationale, has teams competing for prizes based on pilot skills flying the 8,000-mile route. The airplanes launched from the Greek island of Crete on Nov. 13 and are scheduled to reach Cape Town in mid-December. The route follows the 1930s-era route flown by Imperial Airways, one of the early airlines that eventually led to the formation of British Airways. Participating aircraft include Travel Airs, Tiger Moths and a Bu 131 Bucker Jungmann.
