Hemingway survived two plane crashes in Africa in 1954. The accidents occurred in January during a safari and sightseeing trip in the Belgian Congo, now part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The first aircraft struck an abandoned utility pole while flying toward Murchison Falls and made a crash landing.
Hemingway and Mary Welsh survived the initial wreck and spent the night in the bush. The following day, a rescue aircraft arrived, but it crashed and caught fire during takeoff from a rough landing strip. Hemingway escaped with severe injuries, including burns, a head wound, and damage to his back, shoulder, liver, kidney, and skull.
News reports initially circulated that he had died, and journalists gathered in Entebbe to cover the supposed death of the famous author. Hemingway later joked with reporters and recovered in Nairobi. The crashes left him in chronic pain and contributed to the physical decline of his later years. They are sometimes confused with his 1953–54 African safari as a whole, but the crashes themselves happened in January 1954.