Original version

BBC Radio 4 Extra

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

Archive on 4

Documentaries

Factual

Brilliant stories told using archive from the BBC and beyond.

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 LW

Archive on 4: Atlantic Crossing

Atlantic Crossing

19/04/2014

BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, Atlantic Crossing

The connection between those who fly the Atlantic and those who guide us over it.

4 Extra Debut. Christine Finn ponders the connection between those who fly the Atlantic and those who guide us over it. From April 2014.

When Christine Finn's in-flight entertainment was accidentally tuned to cockpit radio on a transatlantic flight, the voice of air traffic control as they reached Irish airspace seemed to be welcoming her as well as the pilot.

As a creative archaeologist, she wanted to unravel the connections between those who fly the Atlantic and those who guide them safely over, especially when she discovered that datalink - effectively text messaging - is increasingly being used, so that voice communication is on the wane.

Listening to archive of transatlantic flights from the first by Alcock and Brown in 1919, Christine discovered that the west coast of Ireland looms large in the history. She visited Shannon airport in County Clare, scene of many departures and reunions and, in the 1950s and 60s - before the jet engine - a stop-over for most of the popular icons of the day as their planes re-fuelled after the 3000 mile flight; every US President since JFK has visited Shannon, and most stars from Marilyn Monroe to Fred Astaire. 

And at the North Atlantic Communications Centre in nearby Ballygirreen, Christine met the faces behind the voices she heard coming out of the dark on her own Atlantic Crossing.

Producer: Marya Burgess.

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Archive on 4

Atlantic Crossing

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC Radio 4 Extra

About BBC Radio 4 Extra