The Plane That Stayed Thirty-Three Years

From Landing to Recovery

When Jimmie Angel set his Flamingo down on the marshy summit of Auyán-tepui on 9 October 1937, the aircraft — named El Río Caroní — sank to its axles in boggy ground and could not be moved. Angel and his three companions walked out over eleven days. The plane stayed.

The El Río Caroní was a Flamingo monoplane built by the Gardner Aircraft Corporation of Ohio, a single-engine machine suited to the rough airstrips of Venezuela's interior. Its airframe endured more than three decades of tepui weather: persistent cloud, equatorial ultraviolet, and the relentless humidity of a plateau that sits above 2,400 metres in Canaima National Park. Photographs taken before the recovery show the fuselage structurally intact but heavily weathered, the fabric control surfaces degraded, the undercarriage still buried.

Grass-covered cliff edge with layered rock strata under a heavy, cloudy sky — A plateau shared by three countries, where the sandstone is two billion years old and the plants have nowhere else to go. Roraima's Cliff and What Grows on TopPhoto: Dean Davies / Pexels

In 1970 the Venezuelan Air Force mounted a recovery operation using Alouette III helicopters — at the time among the few rotorcraft capable of operating reliably at that altitude. The aircraft was disassembled on the summit and airlifted off in sections, thirty-three years after Angel walked away from it.

At 979 metres total and 807 metres of uninterrupted free fall, Angel Falls is the tallest waterfall in the world — a direct consequence of how the Guiana Highlands were made. The Wall the Water Falls OffPhoto: Anil Sharma / Pexels

Chronology

9 November 1937Angel lands El Río Caroní on Auyán-tepui summit; aircraft becomes mired
1937–1970aircraft remains on the summit, exposed to tepui weather conditions
1970Venezuelan Air Force Alouette III helicopters disassemble and airlift the plane off the plateau
Post-1970reassembled aircraft installed at Museo de Aeronáutica de Maracay, Aragua state

Object details

Aircraft nameEl Río Caroní
TypeFlamingo monoplane, Gardner Aircraft Corporation, Ohio
Enginesingle-engine configuration
Recovery methoddisassembly and airlift by Alouette III rotorcraft
Current locationMuseo de Aeronáutica de Maracay, Mariscal Sucre Air Base, Aragua state
Replica siteCanaima, near the brink of Angel Falls

The Flamingo was restored at the Museo de Aeronáutica de Maracay, Venezuela's principal aviation museum, and now stands outdoors in front of the airport at Ciudad Bolívar. It is displayed as a static exhibit, restored to recognisable form rather than airworthy condition. A full-size replica is held at the museum in Maracay.

The original aircraft is among the more unusual museum objects in South America: not a machine retired from service, but one retrieved from a wilderness after thirty-three years.

The Plane That Stayed Thirty-Three Years

From Landing to Recovery

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