TWO ’PLANES TO BE SENT FOR ARCTIC RESCUE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18499, 27 June 1928, Page 8

TWO ’PLANES TO BE SENT FOR ARCTIC RESCUE.

(United Prew Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, June 26. Arrangements are being made at Stockholm for the despatch of a Fokker ’plane and a De Haviland Moth to rescue the Italia’s crew. The machines are specially fitted to land on a small area of ice. It is reported from Spitzbergen that a Swedish mechanic is willing to descend in a parachute on the icefloe to assist M. Lundborg to repair his aeroplane. M. Lundborg asked for spare parts to be. dropped by means of a parachute.—Australian Press Association—United Service. The difficult nature of the ice was shown when M. Lundborg’s ’plane, the Upland, which is fitted with runners, alighted to rescue General Nobile. The ice was shifting rapidly and floes weighing many tons were tossed about like corks. General Nobile was struck by one of the blocks of ice, the bones of his leg being shockingly broken. He was rushed off to the Citta di Milano before his companions. It was when the Upland was returning for these men that it capsized. The pilot was not injured. It was reported that a second member of the Nobile party had been rescued by a Swedish 'plane, but whether he was taken off by the Upland with General Nobile or by another ’plane is not certain. Captain Amundsen and Major Guilbaud, in a French seaplane, set out to search for General Nobile and disappeared last week. An ice-breaker picked up weak signals on Sunday which were believed to come from Amundsen. If this was so the ’plane must have been within a radius of sixty miles, as neither the ship nor ’plane is able to speak over a greater distance.