It's a Boat! It's a Plane! No, It's…Both?

 "In Germany, everyone knows about the history of the plane," said Andrea Daser, who watched from the deck of a tugboat as a strange bird called the DO-24ATT circled the skies over New York harbor on Aug. 24.

The plane made several passes around the Statue of Liberty.

"Here, people are like, 'What is that, a boat or a plane?'"

It is a bit a both, a c t u a l l y.

T h e amphibious plane, with a hull-like f u s e l a g e made for water landings, is the restored version of the DO-X-a craft designed by the German company Dornier in 1930 and used by the Luftwaffe during World War II. Daser was accompanying her husband, Klaus, who has organized a world tour of the plane to promote the company and UNICEF.

As the plane repeatedly circled the Statue of Liberty, and seemingly buzzed river traffic on the way to its splash-down landing, the odd-looking craft was a startling sight to spectators ashore who were unaware of its mission.

On Governors Island, Australian and Canadian tourists stood with mouths agape as they watched the Coast Guard quickly meet the plane once it touched down in the harbor near the Staten Island Ferry terminal. "You're not allowed to just show up," one of the tourists announced. "He's probably in handcuffs by now."

"We might be seeing history," said another, contemplating the possibility that she had just witnessed the capture of a terrorist. Instead, the scene was one of jubilation as the crew climbed from the hatch and waved from the bow to news photographers bobbing in a boat nearby.

Then the crew was ferried ashore, where they held a planned news conference. Captain Iren Dornier, who cut a dashing figure in his bright orange flight suit that was zipped down just enough to reveal a tiger-tooth necklace, proclaimed the view of Lower Manhattan "amazing, incredible-I was in ecstasy."

After a few more photographs and a plea for donations to UNICEF, the pilot and crew were off. And once more they made a show of buzzing river traffic.

On the Battery Park City esplanade, Gina Woloszyhn, a Battery Park City resident, said the plane was flying so low she feared it would collide with a barge.

"I thought maybe the people flying it were drunk," she said.

A crew member (center) of the DO24-ATT stands by to tie off to a tug as a dinghy approaches to ferry the crew ashore. Photo: Allan Tannenbaum
A young spectator, one of many who watched from the Battery Park City esplanade, waves to the plane following its takeoff near North Cove. Photo: Carl Glassman

The DO24-ATT flies over New York Harbor. Photo: Carl Glassman