Crew Manifests for 5 of 6 UNRRA Contract Flights
The Veterans Air Express UNRRA Crew Manifest #3 is MIA (Missing In Action). It would have been for the first UNRRA flight to Warsaw. A history making flight because it was the first post-WWII non-military, commercial air transport flight into Warsaw. As such, overflight permission from the Russians was required. For added drama, both Warsaw and Prague were behind the “iron curtain.”
Not only are these Crew Manifests treasure for research efforts, but insight into how casual some international procedures were in 1946. Starting with the 1st manifest, note that the same document was used for going to and coming back from Prague. A few scratch outs and over-writing gives you both documents. True for two of these five Manifests. Then there is the inconsistency of the Company name and spelling. VETERANS AIRLINES, VETERANS’ AIR EXPRESS COMPANY, and VETERANS AIR EXPRESS CO., OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT, Overseas Division.
Belt and Suspenders
Another observation. A management strategy. This same Prague flight registered 10 Crew Members. Two Copilots, two Navigation Officers and three Flight Engineers. This Crew was prepared! Conjures up the expression “Belt and Suspenders.” Compare this to flight #6 with six Crew Members, four of whom were on Flight #1. The smaller number was undoubtedly influenced by experience, but also their destination – Athens.
1st UNRRA FLIGHT_PRAGUE CREW RETURN MANIFEST 1946 April 23
2nd UNRRA FLIGHT_PRAGUE CREW MANIFEST 1946 May 2
3rd UNRRA FLIGHT_WARSAW CREW MANIFEST 1946 May 27
4th UNRRA FLIGHT_PRAGUE CREW MANIFEST 1946 JUNE 8
5th UNRRA FLIGHT_ATHENS CREW MANIFEST 1946 August 25
