(RCA) station WCC at Chatham, Massachusetts, for transmission to New York City. The first message read: "German plane at Greenly Island, wind southeast, thick [fog]." A short time later, a second message was sent: "German plane Bremen landed Greenly Island, noon, slightly damaged, crew well." By 7:15 p.m., the story was in all the newsrooms of the eastern seaboard. The first Canadian aircraft to reach the scene was piloted by Duke Schiller and the second machine was flown by the Canadian Transcontinental Airways's (1927–38) Chief Pilot, Romeo Vachon, who arrived two days later with a group of media representatives. Both Schiller and Vachon were flying Fairchild FC-2W machines; G-CAIQ (Schiller) and G-CAIP (Vachon). Ultimately, some 60 journalists would crowd onto the island to report on the successful crossing. The Bremen crew did not depart the island for two weeks as they attempted to repair the aircraft, but they were ultimately unsuccessful. The crew of the Bremen was rescued by a Ford Trimotor flown by veteran pilots Bernt Balchen (who would later pilot the first aircraft over the South Pole) and Floyd Bennett (who had piloted the first aircraft over the North Pole, in 1926). Bennett was suffering from pneumonia and died in hospital after the flight, On their arrival in New York on April 30, the Bremen'''s crew were honoured with a tickertape parade. On 2 May, the 70th United States Congress authorized President Calvin Coolidge, to confer the United States Distinguished Flying Cross on the Bremen Flyers. Back in Ireland on 30 June 1928, they were bestowed the Freedom of the City of Dublin in recognition of their trans-Atlantic flight achievement Later in 1928 they published a book about their experience called (in English) The Three Musketeers of the Air. Status The Bremen belongs to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, and is on display in a hangar at the Bremen Airport Museum. See also P. A. Ó Síocháin Spirit of St. Louis Cape Cod Miss Veedol Plus Ultra Bird of Paradise British airship R34, the first aircraft of any type to perform the east-west trans-Atlantic crossing from July 2–6, 1919 References Further reading Hermann Koehl, James C. Fitzmaurice, Baron Guenther von Huenefeld, The Three Musketeers of the Air: Their Conquest of the Atlantic from East to West, 1928 Fred W. Hotson, The Bremen, Toronto: CANAV Books, 1988. Source for Crew and Date changes: Chronicle of Aviation, 1992,