MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - A plane raised from the Mediterranean 60 years after it crashed, killing author Antoine de Saint-Exupery, has been identified and will be put on display in southern France, officials said on Wednesday.Saint-Exupery, whose fable "The Little Prince" is considered a classic of flight, love and loneliness, disappeared on July 31, 1944, during a wartime aerial reconnaissance mission.
"The wreck of the plane that was raised last autumn near the Riou island has been identified as the (Lockheed Lightning) P-38 on which Saint-Exupery made his last voyage," said Jean-Claude Gaudin, mayor of southern Marseille.
He said the wreck would be exhibited in a Marseille museum to pay tribute to the writer and aviator who died a year after the book was published.
A French diver discovered the remains of the airplane off the coast of Marseille four years ago, after a fisherman hauled up a bracelet belonging to the author and aviator in 1998.
It was raised from 260 feet last October and, though analysis showed the plane was Saint-Exupery's, it remains unclear why it crashed. The author's body has never been recovered.
Saint-Exupery, born in 1900 to an aristocratic French family, tried several times to study liberal arts before deciding to become a pilot.
As an adult, his passion for flying inspired "Vol de Nuit" ("Night Flight") and in 1943 "The Little Prince," an all-time bestseller about a pilot downed in the Sahara who meets a mysterious prince with whom he makes an interplanetary journey.
