Flight to be completed

  • 2000-11-09
VILNIUS (BNS) - Lithuanian-born American Julius Sakas intends to complete the trans-Atlantic flight of two Lithuanian pilots who died after their small plane crashed before reaching Lithuania in 1933.

Sakas, a professional pilot, plans to make a symbolic flight to the Lithuanian city of Kaunas from the Soldin forest on the German-Polish border, where the plane of Steponas Darius and Stasys Girenas crashed. The flight is scheduled for 2003, the 70th anniversary of the previous flight.

Darius and Girenas started their journey from New York to Kaunas in the single-engine monoplane Lituanica on July 15, 1933. The small airplane later crashed on the German-Polish border leaving thousands of people waiting for the two pilots' arrival at Kaunas airport.

Sakas told the Baltic News Service he had been mulling over the idea of completing the route for several decades, adding that he bought the exact copy of Lituanica several years ago.

According to him there are only four planes of this type left in the world.

"The plane [is in] pieces now. It'll require lots of work," said Sakas, adding that a Lituanica fund had been established in the U.S. to transform the project into reality. The pilot said that the entire project would cost about 600,000 litas ($150,000).

Speaking of the motives for the flight, Sakas said that he had been thinking about Darius and Girenas' flight since he was a child.

"My career as a pilot is coming to an end, so now is a good chance to think about such a flight," he told BNS.

Sakas, 57, lives outside Seattle and works as a Boeing 747 captain for Northwest Airlines.