AMUNDSEN ALIVE?

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 157, 6 July 1931, Page 7

AMUNDSEN ALIVE?

GEN. NOBILE'S PLANS.

Italian Explorer to Search for

Lost Airman.

TRIP ON SOVIET VESSEL.

(United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright)

(Received 11.30 a.m.)

MOSCOW, July 5

General Nobile, the Italian airmanexplorer, has booked a passage in the icebreaker Maligin, and is going to the Arctic to search for Captain Roald Amundsen. The American explorer, Anthony Fiala, has propounded the theory that Captain Amundsen may be still alive on Rudolf Island, which the Maligin ie to visit. In April, 1927, Nobile, in the semirigid airship Italia, started on his second expedition to explore the North Polar regions. Except for the meteorologists, the Swedish Professor Malmgren and the Czech Professor Behounek, the members were all Italians. On May, 24, against the advice of his weather experts, Nobile left Spitzbergen. On reaching the Pole he threw down an Italian flag and the cross given him by the Pope, the point of which was weighted so that it should stand upright in the ice. It was impossible to land as intended, but news of the achievement was wirelessed to Rome. Nobile later admitted that he ignored the weather forecast because he was bent on laying Italy's flag on the Polo on the anniversary of her entry into the war. The result was that the airship never returned.

Storms drove her down on to the pack ice, the first gondola being torn oft', while the hull and the eecond gondola were carried away and, it is believed, destroyed by a petrol explosion and fire. None of its six occupants were heard of again. Searches were at once begun. Amundsen, in spite of his quarrel with Nobile, set off in a 'plane with the Frenchman Gilbaud, and both are believed to have perished on the flight to the Arctic. The Italian airman Maddalena, who was killed in a crash two months ago, located Nobile's party on June 20, and dropped food. Four days later the Swede Lundborg alighted on the ice and took off Nobile, who was injured, but could not remove the others, who included a man with a broken leg. , Nobile stated afterwards that the airman insisted on rescuing him first against his will. It was not till July 12 that the Soviet ice-breaker Krassin was able to reach the others. Meanwhile, Malmgren, who had set off across the ice with two Italians, had succumbed.

On the journey to Rome the survivors were greeted with enthusiasm, except the leader, who was regarded as having wantonly sacrificed lives, and Malmgren's two companions, who were suspected of not having done all they could to save the professor. Sweden wanted to inquire into the affair, but Mussolini would not hear of this. At the official investigation in Rome it was found that the disaster was due to improper handling of the airship and its crew by Nobile, who was censured for allowing himself to be rescued first. The companions of Malmgren were exonerated from all blame.. Nobile was forced to resign his rank and commission, and was not allowed to publish in Italy a book ■in hie own defence. He therefore made arrangements to issue it abroad.

ANOTHER STEP.

Chichester at Cairns on Flight To Japan. INDEFINITE PLANS. (Received 11.30 a.m.) BRISBANE, this day. Mr. F. C. Chichester has arrived at Cairns. He said he expected to reach Japan in a fortnight but could not even hazard a guess as to how long it would take him to fly from there to England. That would depend on his ability to secure fuel supplies in the inhospitable wastes of the Arctic region.

FLYING IN AFRICA.

SIR A. COBHAM'S SURVEY

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, July 5,

Sir Alan Cobham will make a special survey flight in Central Africa shortly. He will use a Short Bristol seaplane. A number of experts will accompany him> as the object of the flight is to test the possibility of establishing a seaplane route from the Nile by way of the Great Lakes to the Congo. The machine to be used has remarkable speed and climbing capacity. It has accommodation for 16 passengers.