CAP aviatrix dodged a doomed flight in 1932

PENNSYLVANIA -- A Civil Air Patrol World War II-era pilot who died last month at the age of 99 -- Ida Mae Hampton Wassell -- turned down a transatlantic flight in 1932, just four months after Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the ocean. Wassell rejected the transatlantic trip because she favored scientific research over "spectacular ocean flights." The flight to Rome, Italy, was unsuccessful, ending in the death of a pilot, a physician and a nurse. All were lost at sea. The doomed flight and Wassell's aviation career are chronicled in a recent article in The Philadelphia Inquirer.