Notes for Eric Alfred Pearson

Sweden, Indexed Birth Records, 1880-1920:
Child's Given Name: Erik Alfred Eliffrod
Birth Date: 24 Maj 1920
Birth Place: Kungsholm eller Ulrika Eleonora, Stockholm
Father: Karl Fabian Persson
Father Birth Date: 8 Jun
Mother: Rut Axelina Dahleman
Mother Birth Date: 2 Maj 1886
Mother Age: 34
GID Number: 2699.174.255800
Roll/Fiche Number: CK7181
Volume:SCB


Social Security Number: 007-16-6146
Issued: New York
Last Residence: Miami, Dade County, Florida


Eric was born in Sweden, but by law he was a Nationalized American Citizen by birth, for his mother became pregnant with him before leaving the USA and having him born during a visit with her family in Sweden.

Eric grew up as the youngest of three children in the family home located at 126 South 1st Ave., Mt. Vernon, New York. He graduated in the class of 1938 from A.B. Davis High School in Mount Vernon, New York. The school year book states Eric was the captain of the gym team, and a member of the camera club.

At 18 years old, Eric purchased an old WWI biplane aircraft. During his first attempt at trying a takeoff most of the push-rods flew out of the engine as he went down the runway. He spent most of that day looking for the push-rods, and by the following morning he managed to get them back into the engine. Nevertheless, he did eventually achieve getting the aircraft off the ground and go flying, and he did this with no prior flying lessons, training, or flight instructor.

As of April 1, 1940, Eric is still living with his parents and working as a michinist for an aeroplane company.

During WWII he joined the Navy where he contracted scarlet fever and a trace of acute rheumatic fever. After his recovery he was discharged from the Navy and went to work for Lockheed Aircraft Company in Burbank, California. This was followed by him going to Alaska, and by the end of the war he had started an airline company named, Pearson Alaska Airlines. In conjunction with being the only survivor of a plane crash, he operated the airline until the government under the Civil Aeronautics Board closed down nearly all the small airline companies, including his own.

Eric moved back to Burbank, California where he started an aircraft engine overhaul company that was later moved to Miami, Florida.

When Eric died he was cremated and his ashes were spread over the ocean from the north end of the old seven mile bridge located within the Florida Keys.


The following was written by Eric Charles Pearson, the son of Eric Alfred Pearson:

On February 14, 1956, my father, (Eric Alfred Pearson) was the sole survivor of a plane crash during the middle of winter in northern Quebec, Canada.

My father was in the back of the plane making sure the cargo was securely tied down as they were flying through a snowstorm. At this time, the pilot and flight engineer couldn't see anything outside the cockpit windows, and the plane was loosing some altitude. It was then the plane crashed onto a frozen lake instantly killing both the pilot and flight engineer. The impact was so violent the body of the flight engineer had been thrown through the front cockpit window. As for my father, he sustained some minor bruising and a black eye when he was thrown from the back to the forward section of the airplane.

My father was the only one still alive, and the only structure he had for protection from the Artic winter was the aircraft tail section that had broken off during the crash. Despite the situation, my father managed to use the aircraft cargo and netting to build a barrier wall within the aircraft tail section entrance. Also, he managed to recover and place the body of the flight engineer into a sleeping bag.

My father prayed to be rescued as each day pass into another long Artic night, for it was in the dark of night when the polar bears would periodically show up and attempt to kill and eat him.

It was three and a half days later when my father was rescued, and it was on the last day before the search was going to be discontinued.
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