ELLSWORTH’S MISFORTUNE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 245, 13 September 1935, Page 9

ELLSWORTH’S MISFORTUNE.

POLAR PLANE DAMAGED. MONTEVIDEO, Sept. 11. Mr Lincoln Ellsworth’s aeroplane the Polar Star cracked up yesterday when descending at the airport after engine trouble had developed during a test flight. The machine crashed into a wire fence. Tho testing pilot escaped with superficial scratches. Mr Ellsworth, who does not believe that the accident will delay the departure of the expedition to the Antarctic, indicated that the Wyatt Earp would have her complete personnel aboard and would leave on October 15 for the Weddell Sea, where, either from Dundee or from Snowhill Island, he and his Canadian pilot, Mr Kenyon, would attempt for the sixth time the dangerous 2800-mile hop to the Ross Sea across the South Pole. “It is a true pioneer flight,” he said. “I am not interested in the resources of the continent even if it is full of gold, but with the material from this flight 1 hope to be able to build a framework of knowledge which later expeditions can enlarge upon.” Mr Ellsworth was inclined to disagree with Admiral R. E. Byrd’s statement that Antartica was definitely one land mass, to determine which is one of the aims of the flight. “Without trying to detract from Admiral Byrd s work,” lie said. “I believe his announcement was premature. When one considers how little is known of this great continent it may take many expeditions many years to decide tho matter definitely.”