In 1948, the renowned philosopher and logician Bertrand Russell narrowly escaped death in a plane crash off the coast of Norway. The reason for his survival? A simple preference for smoking his pipe. This unlikely twist of fate, which Russell himself recounted with characteristic wit and detachment, remains one of the more unusual stories in his long and remarkable life.
The incident occurred when Russell was travelling to Trondheim. His plane, a flying boat, made what seemed to be a routine landing on the water. However, it quickly became apparent that something had gone terribly wrong. As Russell later described in his autobiography:
‘Like the others, I found myself in the water as the plane sank. And, like them, I had to swim until a number of boats put out and picked us up. I don’t suppose I was swimming for more than about a minute. For one who has been swimming regularly for about 70 years, it wasn’t much. I have not been injured at all. I thought for a while as I stood on the pier wrapped in blankets that I might be in for a cold. I was to have given a series of lectures to the Students’ Union tonight, and would have been quite fit and ready to do so.’ (Sunday Dispatch, October 3rd, 1948, p. 1)
Russell later provided more details in his autobiography, offering a fuller account of the disaster and the grim fate of those who had been seated elsewhere on the plane:
‘When our plane touched down on the water it became obvious that something was amiss, but none of us in the plane knew what it was. We sat in the plane while it slowly sank. Small boats assembled round it and presently we were told to jump into the sea and swim to a boat – which all the people in my part of the plane did. We later learned that all the nineteen passengers in the non-smoking compartment had been killed. When the plane had hit the water a hole had been made in the plane and the water had rushed in. I had told a friend at Oslo who was finding me a place that he must find me a place where I could smoke, remarking jocularly, “If I cannot smoke, I shall die.” Unexpectedly, this turned out to be true.’
Russell’s penchant for smoking had placed him in the section of the plane where passengers had time to escape before the cabin filled with water. Those seated in the non-smoking section were trapped and perished. The irony of his offhand comment to his friend in Oslo was not lost on him.
After being rescued, Russell and the other survivors were taken ashore several miles from Trondheim. He described the kindness shown to him by those who assisted:
‘We were rowed to shore to a place some miles from Trondheim and thence I was taken in a car to my hotel. Everybody showed me the utmost kindness and put me to bed while my clothes dried. A group of students even dried my matches one by one. They asked if I wanted anything and I replied, “Yes, a strong dose of brandy and a large cup of coffee.” The doctor, who arrived soon after, said that this was quite the right reply…’
Russell’s characteristic humour and rational perspective are evident throughout his account. He was bemused by the dramatic retellings of the event in the media, insisting that his swim to safety had been much less of an ordeal than reported:
‘I was astonished by the commotion caused by my part in this adventure. Every phase of it was exaggerated. I had swum about one hundred yards, but I could not persuade people that I had not swum miles. True, I had swum in my great-coat and lost my hat and thrown my attaché case into the sea. The latter was restored to me in the course of the afternoon – and is still in use – and the contents were dried out. When I returned to London the officials all smiled when they saw the marks of sea water on my passport. It had been in my attaché case, and I was glad to recover it.’
This remarkable episode underscores Russell’s cool-headedness in crisis and his enduring ability to find irony and humour even in the gravest of situations. A philosopher known for his rigorous logic and commitment to reason, he nevertheless owed his survival on this occasion to nothing more than his fondness for tobacco. His escape remains a fascinating footnote in the life of one of the 20th century’s greatest thinkers.
Bertrand Russell’s Message To Us All
“I would like to say two things, one intellectual and one moral….”
“Love is wise; hatred is foolish.”.
