Aircraft saved by rudimentary Astro?

[omega]

I'm due to give a talk on Aviation Astro Navigation and would like to introduce it with the story of the airliner which received a distress message from a lost single pilot aircraft. The airliner crew established the position of the lost aircraft by means of very rudimentary astro using the altitude of the sun measured with a thumb and its azimuth. But I can't recall any of the interesting details such as when, where, who etc. Can anybody help?

[Agaricus bisporus]

Google is your friend

Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771 (Movie review) airodyssey.net (http://airodyssey.net/1999/03/01/movie-flt771/)

[Albert Driver]

Aircraft saved by rudimentary Astro?

Is there another form of Astro.....?

[onetrack]

Recommended reading... Powered Adventure: Emergency - Crisis on the Flight Deck - Stewart, Human Performance (http://www.poweredadventure.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=pl_BTG121) (includes the true story of Flight 771, not the embellished movie version)

[Brian Abraham]

Previous thread here http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/423708-qantas-crew-help-lost-pilot-1950-60s.html

[omega]

Many thanks everyone - most helpful.

[India Four Two]

Is there another form of Astro.....?AD, I see that Pilot to Nav banter is still alive and well ;)

In my opinion, this was quite sophisticated Astro. An excellent source for these techniques is "Emergency Navigation" by David Burch

The Kamal qualifies as rudimentary but practical - a piece of wood and a knotted string for measuring star altitudes:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/india42/Indian_ocean_navigator_kamal.jpg

and at the other end of the scale you have the Apollo GNS and Sextant - sophisticated by any definition:
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/india42/apollosextant.jpg

ION Museum: Sextant, Apollo Guidance and Navigation System (http://www.ion.org/museum/item_view.cfm?cid=6&scid=5&iid=293)