Aviator-Adventurer ‘Wrong Way’ Corrigan Dies

Douglas Corrigan, who became internationally known as “Wrong Way” Corrigan when he headed his homemade single-engine plane west from New York to Long Beach, Calif., but landed in Ireland, has died. He was 88.

Corrigan, who made his famous “mistake” in 1938, died Saturday in St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange, Calif.

On July 17, 1938, Corrigan loaded 320 gallons of gasoline (enough for 40 hours) into the tiny plane and took off.

Corrigan’s instruments included two compasses and a turn-and-bank indicator. The cabin door was literally held shut with baling wire. Twenty-nine hours later, he landed in Baldonnel near Dublin.

But Corrigan became an international hero. His ticker-tape parade when he sailed into New York was larger than Lindbergh’s.