Search for Amundsen relaunched

Aug 11, 2009 15:29

Roald Amundsen - Lost in the Arctic

Roald Amundsen was the world’s greatest polar explorer. The Norwegian was the first to cross the Northwest Passage, he won the spectacular race to the South Pole against his rival, Robert F. Scott, and he led a pioneering expedition across the Arctic Ocean. But in the end, a revolutionary method of transport became his nemesis - the airplane. On June 18th, 1928, Amundsen boarded the Latham 47, a sea-plane bound for Spitsbergen, Norway. He was accompanied by a crack team of French Air Force pilots. Extraordinarily, Roald Amundsen wanted to save his fiercest rival: Umberto Nobile. The Italian general and aviator had crashed his airship Italia on a return voyage from the North Pole. Nobile and his surviving crew members found themselves drifting helplessly on the pack ice of the Arctic Circle.



Amundsen was asked to join the rescue operation. It would be the final mission of his epic and controversial life: At 6 p.m. on that day in June, one last radio message was picked up from Amundsen’s aircraft - then, there was silence…

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