(2 of 2)
For most Frenchmen, however, the most important single item in Suzanne's waybill was tough, pompadoured Marcel Cerdan, the idolized middleweight boxing champ who last June dropped his title to Jake LaMotta in Detroit. "Don't worry, darling," Marcel had told his wife in Casablanca over the phone from Orly Airport last week, "I'll get there and I'll bring back that title." As Marcel and his manager climbed aboard the plane, there was little doubt in French hearts that both prophecies would be borne out.
Silence. Six hours later, at 2:50 a.m., Suzanne's boss, veteran pilot Captain de la Noue, sent a message that soon lost its meaning: "Having accomplished first part of flight normally, ready to land in five minutes at Santa Maria. Weather clear."
That was the last link that held the Constellation and 48 lives to earth. Sometime, somehow, in the next few minutes a heavy cloud and the high peak of Mt. Redondo on Sao Miguel Island combined and snapped the threads. A truckman saw a flash of light on the mountain. Planes took off to search, and eight hours later a twisted, fire-blackened heap was sighted on the mountainside. In the Constellation's wreckage were its 48 dead, burned beyond recognition.