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.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher

Autobiography, Vol. 3: 1944-1969, ch. 1 “Return to England” (1969)
    (Source)

On a 1948 seaplane flight he took from Germany to Norway.