Plane likely to stay in snows

Press, 16 January 1988, Page 6

Plane likely to stay in snows

By

DAVE WILSON

New Zealand is unlikely to attempt to salvage the historic Byrd Antarctic expedition aircraft, which crashed in 1929 and has been rediscovered by a D.S.I.R. field team.

The discovery was made public yesterday, but a D.S.I.R. spokesman in Christchurch, Mr Keith Clegg, said the department had no plans to attempt a recovery of the aircraft.

“We regard the aeroplane as United States property. It is always possible American interests, such as the Smithsonian Institution, may want the aircraft.”

The public relations officer with the United States Naval Support Force Antarctica at Christchurch, Petty Officer Margaret Young, was unaware of any im-

mediate plans to salvage the 59-year-old wreck.

American resources at present were geared toward a planned flight to Christchurch this weekend of a more recent Antarctic salvage object, a Hercules which lay trapped in the snow for 16 years, but was successfully salvaged this month. The Hercules’ flight from the remote D 59 strip to McMurdo Base coincided with the D.S.I.R. announcement that a geological field party had found the remains of a Fokker Monoplane used by Admiral Richard Byrd during his Antarctic expedition between 1928 and 1930. The old aircraft was destroyed by high winds in March, 1929, and now lies in a remote area about 890 km east of Scott Base.