AMUNDSEN'S FATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 248, 19 October 1928, Page 7

AMUNDSEN'S FATE.

PART OF 'PLANE FOUND

Badly Battered Petrol Tank Picked Up.

QUANTITY OP TUEIi INTACT.

(Australian and N.Z. Press Association.)

(Received 10.30 a.m.)

PARIS, October 18,

An aluminium petrol tank marked •Hydro-Avian Lathan," obviously belonging to Amundsen's 'plane, was picked up by a trawler north of Trondhjem.

Though badly battered the tank still contained 30 litres of petrol and there were signs that it had been violently detached from the 'plane. It bore undecipherable traces of a pencil inscription,

Captain Roald Amundsen left Tromso, Norway on Monday, June 18, at 4 p.m., in a seaplane piloted by the French airman Major Guilbaud, with Lieutenant Dietrichson as spare pilot, in search of General Nobili and his wrecked expedition. The 'plane was due at Spitsbergen, the base, on June 19, but the entire population there waited for its arrival in vain. It was thought that the veteran explorer had set a course to reach Nobili direct. The 'plane used by Amundsen carried fuel sufficient for a night of 2000 miles. A prolonged search has been prosecuted for the missing men, but without avail. On September I the first tangible evidence of a disaster to the 'plane was the finding of a float by fishermen in the Arctic circle, which •was definitely identified as being part of the explorer's 'plane. All hope for the safety of the famous explorer and his friends was then abandoned.