Posted on 02/27/2009 3:58:07 PM PST by nickcarraway
NORWAY plans to resume the search for South Pole conqueror Roald Amundsen's plane 81 years after it vanished during an Arctic rescue mission, the Royal Norwegian Navy has announced.
Amundsen was on board a French Latham 47 flying boat that disappeared in the Barents Sea on 18 June, 1928. The plane was searching for the airship Italia, which crashed while returning from a North Pole expedition led by Umberto Nobile, an Italian aeronautical engineer.
"We want to find the plane and help solve the mystery," said Commander Frode Loeseth of the Norwegian navy.
In 1926, Amundsen and a crew that included Nobile successfully flew over the North Pole in the airship Norge. Two years later the Italia, with Nobile aboard, crashed in the Arctic, and Amundsen joined the search. Amundsen's plane vanished, probably north of Bear Island in the Barents Sea, and no trace has ever been found.
Nobile and seven other members of the crew on the Italia were later found alive.
Cmdr Loeseth said: "If the plane is there, we will find it."
Even though the Latham 47 was built of wood on a steel frame, experts say major components such as the engines might still be visible on the ocean floor.
Little bit of irony with Amundsen.
Everybody knows that he and his party were the first to the Soth Pole.
But with the now almost certain research that shows Perry did not make it to the North Pole, Amundsen along with another group in an airship was also the first to the North Pole.
Look for a big ice cube with eyeballs.
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