Case file · High strangeness
Saint-Exupéry's desert crash
On 30 December 1935 the aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and his mechanic André Prévot crashed in the desert west of Cairo during a Paris–Saigon record attempt and wandered four days without water.
1935 CE · 30.33, 29.90 · status: explained
The account
In 'Wind, Sand and Stars' (1939) he described mirages, phantom lakes, imaginary villages and voices before a Bedouin found them. The episode later shaped 'The Little Prince'.
The sceptical view
Hallucinations from dehydration, heat and exhaustion are well documented.