In a South Wind

The Flagship Ethiopia, a Swedish-owned Bristol freight plane, refueled at Catania, in Sicily, and took off for Rome in a sirocco storm. Aboard were a crew of four and 21 passengers, all Swedish pilots and mechanics homebound after delivering in Addis Ababa 16 surplus Swedish light bombers for Emperor Haile Selassie's tiny but growing air force.

About an hour after the takeoff, Master Sergeant Sutre Paijkull, in a rear seat, idly watched one of the Bristol's two propellers bite into a milky fog. Through a sudden rift he saw a mountain ahead, heard Chief Pilot Nils Werner scream: "Oh, my God." The next sounds he remembered were the soft voices of Italian peasants poking about the wreckage which pinioned him in pain.

The Flagship Ethiopia had crashed about 160 feet below the summit of Santa Maria dei Monti, which rises directly behind the villages of Ravello and Scala. Toll: 21 killed, four hurt.

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