RESCUED!

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6865, 21 March 1929, Page 6

RESCUED !

Commander Byrd Finds Three Missing Airmen i PLANE WRECKED BY STORMS GRIM BATTLE WITH TERREPIO GALE. (Copyright from Byrd Expedition by, Russell Owen). Received Wednesday, 11.5 p.m. BAY OF WHALES, March 20. A hole opened in the clouds to the cast yesterday and despite the wind which made the flight hazardous Commander Byrd flew through to his three men in the mountains whose long silence had so alarmed us. All three were safe despite hours oi fighting terrific storms. The rescue plane returned in the darkness with Balchen and June. Byrd, Gould and Hanson, the radio operator who flow with his chief, are remaining until another flight can be made, to bring them back .to Little America. The wind is blowing drift snow and it is cloudy out there, but there is soma hope the flight may be made later n the day. Those at the mountains have plenty of food, shelter and fuel. The silence of Gould’s party at Rockefeller range was explained by their battle with tho terrific storm which on Saturday wrecked their plane. The wind tore tho plane from the snow and from tho lines by which it was anchored, carried it a mile and dropped it a splintered wreck on the glacier The men had worked for hours in the gale which at times blew them straight out from the lines they were holding. Finally the plane was lifted straight up in the air and disappeared. There is no doubt they have discovered a new Antarctic storm area conrparable to that of Adelio Land where Eir Douglas Mawson had such appalling storms. When resting outside Gould and companions had to lie flat and hold themselves in place by the aid of knives and ski sticks stuck in the ice. Only tho sloping wall of ice prevented their tent from being blown away. The flight was made and rescue accomplished at a time of great depression in our camp.