Ruth Elder and George Haldeman arrive in Europe after their harrowing rescue

Ruth Elder and her co-pilot/instructor George Haldeman arrive in Lisbon, Portugal on October 25, 1927 aboard the steamer SS Lima, which brought them from Horta in the Azores. She holds flowers that were dropped to the ship by airplane in celebration of her arrival. In spite of her traumatic ditching and rescue, including the fiery loss of her airplane, Elder was determined to reach her original destination of Paris. While her European reception was likely just a shadow of what it might have been had she completed the flight, her arrival generated considerable attention on both sides of the Atlantic.