This photo shows the aftermath of a less reported but very dramatic incident in Tour de France history. It shows the aftermath of an aircraft crash onto the route of stage 15, Luchon to Pau, in the 1947 Tour de France.
The plane was chartered by the premier French sports newspaper L’Equipe to carry one of their photographers to get dramatic aerial shots of the race. They turned out to be very dramatic indeed.
The plane was circling the Pyrenees when it hit a patch of turbulence while swooping low over the Col du Tourmalet. What happened next was nothing short of a miracle.
The only way the pilot could save himself and those on board was to effect some kind of landing, and the only place he could do that was on the road of the climb itself. The road the riders and all the race vehicles were using.
He did it, managing a controlled crash landing one minute after stage leader Jean Robic of France passed, and another minute before the next rider pedalled by. Everyone on board got out without a scratch, and helped by spectators, they hauled what was left of the plane to the side of the road. The race could pass, although local papers reported some riders having to weave around debris.
Robic went on to win stage 15 and the Tour, but we don’t know what happened to the plane or its steely-eyed pilot. Various aircraft enthusiast forums we looked at have picked up on the incident but have not established whether there was an aircraft investigation into it. Not surprising really, 1947 was the first Tour de France after the Second World War and official bodies had more important things to do, like rebuilding Europe.
📸 L'Equipe
