page_title: Burntcoat Head, Nova Scotia
section_title: The airplane pilots
hierarchical_section_title: Burntcoat Head, Nova Scotia / Lighthouse / The airplane pilots
caption_attribution_description: English: Thomas Faulkner and the lighthouse at Burntcoat Head, Nova Scotia
context_page_description: Burntcoat Head is an unincorporated rural Canadian community in Hants County, Nova Scotia and is known internationally as the site where it was officially recorded that the Bay of Fundy, and specifically Burntcoat, has the highest tides in the world.
context_section_description: The lighthouse was re-built in its present site (1913).  The lighthouse was kept by William Faulkner and his family, on whose land the lighthouse was built.  The gas light in this house was raised every evening on a 76 ft. tower.   During the Great Depression, a German mail plane crashed off the coast at 3:30 am on 6 October 1931.  Many local residents, including the lighthouse keeper Thomas Faulkner, heard the loud roar of the plane over their homes and then an explosion in the bay and then silence.  Fifteen minutes after the crash the lighthouse keeper Faulkner heard screams from the water. The lighthouse keeper made his way to the Noel wharf to see if a rescue boat was available.  There was a schooner, however, Faulkner had to wait for an hour before the tide was high enough to push it off.  While he waited, the pilots continued to scream.  After an hour, as the schooner began to float, the pilots fell silent. After a twelve-hour search, the bodies of the pilots were not found. The only remnant of the plane that was found was the gas tank. A week later, a pilot's body was found by a passing tugboat. Immediately after the event, Thomas Faulkner reported that he thought he could have saved the men had he had a boat ready. The local newspaper reported that the crew were trying to set a record for mail delivery from Europe to New York.
caption: Thomas Faulkner and the Lighthouse, The Hants Journal 7 October 1931
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