Oil Woes Delay Boy Flier on Way to Paris

Eleven-year-old aviator Christopher Lee Marshall was delayed from reaching Paris at least until early today because mechanical trouble Tuesday evening forced his single-engine plane back to a Greenland island for repairs.

Chris, an Oceano fifth-grader who had planned to set the record as the youngest transatlantic aviator by Monday, spent Wednesday night in Glasgow, Scotland, from where he planned to make the final leg of the journey to Paris this morning.

Trouble beset the young flier Tuesday when his plane had a drop in oil pressure and began to overheat about 100 miles off Greenland while approaching rain and thunder, according to family spokesman Patrick Flack.

Flack said the plane’s mechanical problems were only minor, and Chris and co-pilot Randy (Duke) Cunningham, a retired Navy commander from San Diego, were exercising extreme caution in deciding to have the problem corrected in Kulusuk, Greenland, before going any farther. From there, the two moved on to Reykjavik, Iceland, where they spent Tuesday night.