Crash site	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Airline	Syndicato Condor
Aircraft	Junkers W 34 – PP-CAR – Tapajoz
Route	Natal – Recife – Bahia – Belmonte – Victoria – Rio de Janeiro – Santos – Florianopolis – Porto Alégre – Montevideo – Buenos Aires
Crew	2 – no survivors
Passengers	0

 

The crash

The mail plane was transporting the Deutsche Lufthansa southbound airmail from Natal, Brazil to Buenos Aires, Argentina via Uruguay.
In attempting to land in the Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro the seaplane crashed and sank in seven meters of water.

 

The mail

The plane was carrying a large load of mail from Europe and Africa.
Divers salvaged the mail the next day – most in completely watersoaked condition. The mail was brought to the Rio de Janeiro GPO to be dried and sorted out. Much of the mail was found to be illegible and could not be forwarded.
A special handstamp was used in Rio de Janeiro. A special explanation label is known from Argentina, and from Argentina and Uruguay resealing labels can be found on back of covers. Mail to Paraguay has no special markings.
On board was some mail from the Nordic countries. So far I have recorded 8 items from this crash (7 to Sweden and 1 to Denmark).

A.
Brazilian handstamp.
Violet.
Size: ?
Only used on mail addressed
to Rio de Janeiro?

 

 

Examples of mail

Registered postcard from Copenhagen, Denmark with postmark “KØBENHAVN LUFTPOST 1  27.4.34” addressed to the Royal Danish Consulat in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Crash handstamp type A with manuscript “Tapajoz”. Note that some stamps are missing. Thiesen Collection.
Cover from Gothenburg, Sweden metermarked “GÖTEBORG 26.4.34” and addressed to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Violet handstamp type A and on the back is an arrival postmark of Rio de Janeiro 5.4. Unknown Collection.
Cover from the same sender as the previous one, but this one is addressed to Porto Alégre, Brazil. No crash markings. On the back is a manuscript note “Do aviao na mar” ? Written by a collector or a postal clerk? Private Collection.
Registered postcard from Stockholm 26.4.34 to the Danish Legation in Buenos Aires, Argentina. No crash markings. Many interesting postmarks incl. special Stockholm Airmail postmark and two different handstamps used at Berlin Airport. The postcard arrived in Buenos Aires on 6.5. and the Danish Legation received the postcard on 8.5. Note the German 25 f. stamp with part of HAMBURG postmark. Most of the stamps had floated off the mail. A postal clerk tried to “repair” this one, but he was not so lucky! Thiesen Collection.