SECOND 'PLANE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 148, 26 June 1925, Page 6

SECOND 'PLANE

STORY OF POLAR FLIGHT

MAROONED IN THE ICE PACK s

PILOT'S STORY OF PERILOUS DAYS.

'■."(OHrIEO PRES6 ASSOCUTION-COPIIUQHT.) ■ (ADSTRALUN-NEW ZEALANO CABLB ASSOCIATION.) ■.:■■-.-.(Received 26th June, 11.30 p.m.) . .v LONDON; 25th June. .A, copyright message from: the Heimdal at Spitzbergen. gives', extracts from the diary of Dietrichsen, pilot of Amundsen's second; aeroplane, to complete xVmundsen's; story .of the Polar dash. " "We were, astonished,"; lie writes, "at_ the extent and size',-jjf' the .pack ice when -we began ,to descend, as everything seemed better l. from above. Wo immediately saw it would be exceeding-: ly difficult '„to return,; as the ice- was continually moving.; . ::■:,-. v : . "We saw. where N25 had landed,, so we waited to see:;if. she rose again, as we dared not leave our own plane, which was leaking seriously, and; Omdal was repairing r a jammed exhaust pipe. : : :i A; WELCOME; FLAG^ , y ;''Throughout .the- night; Ellsworth and L, kept but - at,: noon- on the 23rd; we: saw ,a .flag flying 1 two miles a.way,; which .raised, pur spirits. -In the evening we communicated by means of flags,; and ; learnt .that., the other .aeroplane; was-: frozen in,/twenty metres ;from the lane. . We. ';', then ; . tried;;, to .raise.) N24 on 1 an; ice-floe in 1.: order to'avoid the tiring task .of pumping, as the'leakage was/increasing, and succeeded'"in .raising'; the; -'plane.;on" -the' 25th. Then Ellsworth': and -I: tried to reach; N2S,\,but turned back after" a seven' hours' maa'ch, realising dt was"' impossible; :; We ■■ were very exhausted. We,finally^reached.N2s on the 26th.. \ During'the 'crossing ,omdal and I -were' saved,from drowning by. theprompt action of Ellsworth. He is a sport.; ...:::; ;-'i v-\:-,/'■.:-'-- ;-■'.'■'".''. .■ ■■ > .',; •':,. :i: snia]l:bay' at::Spitzbergen,:and.is quite of future flights.";:-; ;!;..- ;"' . ■ ."'-..