The Forgotten Arctic Disaster

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]The lure of the mysterious Arctic has called to explorers for centuries. But it was not until April the 6th, 1909 that a team led by US Navy commander Robert E. Perry finally succeeded in reaching the North Pole by foot and dog sled. But such expeditions barely scratched the surface of the Arctic.

[00:00:15]Some 15.5 million square kilm of frozen wasteland nearly twice the area of the continental United States remained unexplored. Speculation abounded as to what lay within that uncharted expanse.

[00:00:26]Perryi claimed to have spotted an island among the pack ice which he named Crocker lands after one of his patrons.

[00:00:31]Perhaps an entire continent they undiscovered just beyond the Arctic Circle. But covering such vast areas by foot or ship was painfully slow and potentially deadly. The Arctic, it was soon realized, was best explored from the air. But the primitive heavier than aircraft of the 1910s had nowhere near the endurance and range to reach the pole. Balloons and airship, however, they just might. It had been tried before with disastrous results. In 1897, Swedish engineer Solomon Andre along with engineer N. Frankl and photographer Neil Stinberg attempted to reach the pole in a free hydrogen balloon called the Orin or Eagle, lifting off on July the 11th, 1897 from Danes, Ireland in the Spalbad Archipelago. The trio drifted off northwards and were never heard from again. It was not until 1930 that the remains of the expedition were discovered on Sparbaz Fatotoya or White Island. According to the diaries and photos recovered at the campsite, the trio flew for 475 km until storm winds forced them down onto the pack ice.

[00:01:31]Packing their provisions into sledges, they trudged for nearly 2 months before reaching where they soon died likely of exhaustion, starvation, or carbon monoxide poisoning from a malfunctioning cook stove. A decade later in 1909, American journalist Walter Wellman attempted to conquer the pole in a 50 m long, 7,300 cubic meter airship dubbed the America. Setting off on August the 15th from Danes Island with a crew of five, America made it 50 km before a large piece of equipment suddenly broke off, causing the airship to rocket into the sky. The crew quickly vented the hydrogen to bring the ship back down and returned to their tender ship. However, while being towed back to port, the America broke loose and exploded. To add insult to injury, Wellman soon learned that Robert Period had just reached the pole by foot. The following year, Wellman attempted to use the America to make the first aerial crossing of the Atlantic. While the attempt was unsuccessful with poor weather and various malfunctions, forcing the crew to abandon ship, the flight is notable for performing history's first recorded airto ground radio transmission. Come and get this godamn cat. The message sent by engineer Melvin Vanaman concerned the airship's contankerous feline mascot kiddo, proving that whatever means of communications humans devis, they will inevitably use it to talk about cats. It would be another decade and a half before a serious effort was made to reach the Arctic by air. This historic voyage was scheduled for the spring of 1924 and was to be flown by the United States's Navy's first rigid airship, the ZR1 or USS Shenoa. Built by the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia and launched on August the 20th, 1923, Chennedur was one of two rigid airships ordered by the Navy as long range fleet scouts. The other being the R38 built by Short Brothers in Carington, England. The Navy had originally planned to commandeer two German military zeppelins as war reparations, but these craft were destroyed by their crews in an act of defiance. R38, which was already under construction when the war ended, was thus adapted to US Navy specifications.

[00:03:25]However, R38 was designed as a so-called height climber which sacrificed weight structural strength in exchange for altitude. This made the airship dangerous to operate in the thicker air at lower altitudes as the lightweight structure would not withstand the stronger aerodynamic forces. Indeed, alarming bending of the hull was noted during early flight trials, but this was ignored and the trials themselves cut short in order to expedite delivery to the Americans. Then on August the 24th, 1921, during an evaluation flight over the Humber Estie, the R38's pilot put the airship through a series of violent maneuvers at a speed of 100 km an hour at an altitude of 750 m. This proved too much for the airframe, which suddenly ripped in half. 77,000 m of hydrogen exploded, shattering windows on the mainland, and the flaming bow of the airship plunged into the Humber River. Only one survivor was pulled from the wreckage. Meanwhile, the Stern descended more gently and landed on a sandbar where four more men were rescued. Of the 17 Americans and 32 Britons aboard, only one and four decided survived the disaster respectively. 2 years later, on December the 21st, 1923, the crash of the R38 was followed by another major disaster when the French airship Dix Mud, a former war reparations German Zeppelin, ran into a thunderstorm over the Mediterranean and exploded, killing all 50 men on board.

[00:04:40]These incidents demonstrated not only the vulnerability of airships to strong winds and other aerodynamic forces, but also the danger of filling them with explosive hydrogen. Thankfully, the United States had a near monopoly on the only viable alternative, helium, a byproduct of petroleum extraction refined in only a single plant in Fort Worth, Texas. But while significantly safer than hydrogen, helium had only 92.6% the lifting capacity. And at $120 per thousand cubic feet, it cost nearly 40 times as much. Nonetheless, the USS Shenoa was filled with an eyewatering $2.5 million of helium, nearly $45 million today, in preparation for her anticipated Arctic flight. To help her along the way, a series of mooring masts would be erected across North America with a final mast being mounted on a ship morowed in the Arctic Ocean. As a warm-up for the Arctic flight, in the fall of 1924, Shenidoa set off on an epic transcontinental flight that would take [music] her from Lake Naval Air Station, New Jersey, later the site of the infamous Hindenburg disaster, across the United States to California and then up the West Coast to Washington State before returning back to Lakeurst.

[00:05:43]Departing on October the 7th, 1924 under the command of Latutenant Commander Zachary Landown, Shanneda returns on October the 25th, having completed the journey in 235 hours and 1 minute. It was the first time the North American continent had been traversed by air. By the time she returned to Lakeust, Sherid was joined by her sister ship ZR3 or USS Los Angeles built by the Zeppelin works in Friedrich Sharen as a replacement for the ill- fated R38. Unfortunately, there was only enough helium in the United States to fill one giant airship. So, the lifting gas from Shenoa was transferred into Los Angeles so that she could perform her flight trials. And by the time Shenida flew again in the summer of 1925, her Arctic voyage had been scrapped as too expensive and risky. And it was just as well, for Shenadoa soon met the fate that befell so many of her brethren. Around 3:00 a.m. on September the 3rd, 1925, while on a demonstration flight over the American Midwest, Shenoa ran into a violent line of thunderstorms near the town of Arbor, Ohio, and was ripped apart. Miraculously, 29 of the 43 men on board survived. But while the Shannidoa disaster did little to dampen American enthusiasm for rigid airships, it briefly put an end to US efforts to reach the North Pole by air. Others were now free to make the attempt and the next to try was a true legend in the field of polar exploration. In 1926, there were few explorers more experienced and celebrated than 54year-old Rald Ammonson. A world-renowned expert in Arctic navigation and survival, the old Viking, as he was affectionately known, had been the first to traverse the infamous Northwest Passage, sailing the sloop Jawah across the Arctic Ocean from Baffin Island, Canada to Nom, Alaska between 1903 and 1906. 5 years later, he led the first successful expedition across Antarctica, reaching the South Geographic Pole on December the 14th, 1911. Between 1918 and 1921, Amunson attempted to reach the North Pole via the Northeast Passage aboard the ship Mor, but was unsuccessful. He thus set his sights on conquering the pole by air. In contrast to his predecessors, Amunson believed that the airplane had sufficiently matured to make a polar flight. Thus, in May 1922, he purchased a Junker's Larsen JL6 monoplane and hired Norwegian pilot Oscar Omdal to fly it. An Americanbuilt version of the German Junker's F-13, the JL6 was one of the most modern and reliable aircraft of its day. Featuring a distinctive corrugated aluminium construction, the type had already broken numerous distance and endurance records, making it ideal choice for a polar flight.

[00:08:04]However, right from the start, the expedition was beset with misfortunes.

[00:08:08]In order to familiarize himself with the aircraft, attempted to fly the JL6 from New York to Seattle, where Amunson's ship, the Morde, was anchored. But while flying over Pennsylvania, the engine stalled and forced on to make an emergency landing, completely destroying the aircraft. Another JL6 was quickly purchased and christened the Elizabeth after Christine Elizabeth Bennett, the wife of one of Wson's patrons along with a Curtis oral biplane named Christine.

[00:08:31]Elizabeth was delivered directly to the Mud which left Seattle in the spring of 1922 and sailed for Wayright in northern Alaska. Unfortunately, the spring and summer of 1922 were beset with storms and strong winds. Anamunson and his crew were forced to postpone the flight and hunker down for the winter. The next attempt was set for June the 20th, 1923.

[00:08:50]As the weather began to clear and the date approached, Elizabeth was reassembled and on May the 11th, 1923, Omdar took her up on her first test flight. Ammonson later recorded what happened next. He approached the houses, losing altitude very quickly and barely missing them. He ended up down on the lagoon a few meters from where he had taken off. The left ski cut across under the engine, flipped a half circle, and overturned on the right wing. Oscar Armdal was never in any danger. We all ran over to the aircraft. The landing gear that was fastened to the left ski was broken. Omdor said that the engine had been working very unsatisfactorily.

[00:09:22]After this, I have little hope of a flight. Though the crew attempted to affect repairs, it soon became clear that Elizabeth would never fly again.

[00:09:30]Reluctantly, Amunson abandoned the expedition and sailed back to Seattle.

[00:09:33]Norwegian console Hark and Hmer, one of Amunson's main financeers, offered to furnish a third JL6 for another attempt, but Amunson, fed up with the unreliability of the Junka's aircraft, declined the offer. Undeterred though, Amunson set about organizing a new expedition. By this time, he was effectively broke, his accountant having grossly mishandled his finances, and despite his outsized reputation in his home country, he failed to find any Norwegian backers for his aerial endeavor. He thus embarked on a lecture tour of the United States to raise funds, but failed to attract any interest. [music] Bitter and defeated, Amson wondered if his exploring days were finally over. Then, while brooding in a New York hotel room, Amunson received an unexpected phone call. The caller was one Lincoln Ellsworth, a 46-year-old son of a wealthy coal magnate, James Ellsworth. An adventure in his own right, Ellsworth was a trained engineer and pilot who had already led several expeditions across the Andes mountains. A huge fan of Amunson's, Ellsworth relished the opportunity to explore the Arctic with the old master, and the two soon began discussing a new aerial expedition. Not satisfied with merely dashing to the Poland back, Amunson proposed crossing the entire Arctic from Spitsburg and in Spalbad Archipelago to Point Barrow, Alaska, a distance of 2,400 km. As no aircraft at the time had the range to complete such a flight non-stop, Amunson and Ellsworth hatched a plan. They would fly two aircraft to the pole, one carrying extra fuel. Upon landing on the ice, the fuel and the crew of the first aircraft would be transferred to the second, with the first being abandoned while the second flew on to Alaska. It was a bold and dangerous plan. So to plate potential backers, Ammonson and Ellsworth claimed they were simply making a simple dash to the pole.

[00:11:06]Concerned for his son's own safety, James Ellsworth was reluctant to fund the venture, but eventually contributed $85,000, more than $1.5 million today, to the expedition. The rest being furnished by various organizations, including the Aero Club of Norway. With this money, Amunson and Ellsworth purchased a pair of Germanbuilt Dornia dude JWL or whale flying boats. With a sturdy aluminium hull and powered by two 355 horsepower B12 engines, the wall could carry six crew members over a range of 2400 km and take off and land from water or under certain conditions ice. Unlike the colorfully named Christina and Elizabeth, the two flying boats were simply designated N24 and N25. Along with Oscar, Ammenson and Ellsworth hired Norwegians J M Relen and Leaf Dietrixen as pilots and German Carl Fit of the Dornia company as a mechanic.

[00:11:53]Though wellprepared and well provisioned, the expedition still faced many daunting challenges. The expedition could only take place within a short window in the Arctic spring and summer when watery leads opened up in the pack ice for the flying boats to land on.

[00:12:06]Violent squalls and thick fogs could quickly set in, reducing visibility to zero, while sunlight reflecting off the snow and ice could temporarily blind unprotected eyes within hours. Worse still, magnetic compasses did not work reliably so close to the magnetic pole, forcing the crew to use other instruments like seextants and sun compasses, all of which required clear skies to operate. Nonetheless, by early May 1925, the expedition had established its base camp at the settlement of Kings Bay, Spitsburgen. After waiting several weeks for the unpredictable weather to clear, the team at last set off on May the 21st with the Munson, Risa, Larsen, and Fute flying in the N25 and on Islesworth and Dietrixen in the N24.

[00:12:42]Radios ordered for the expedition had not arrived in time, forcing the two crews to communicate via hand signals.

[00:12:47]Almost immediately, the flight ran into a thick fog bank. But this dissipated after 2 hours, giving the expedition a clear view of the vast glittering ocean of pack ice beneath them. After 8 hours, Amson ordered Reza Larsson to set down so that he could fix their position.

[00:13:00]Using a sex in the bouncing, vibrating aircraft was difficult, and he could get more accurate readings down on the ice.

[00:13:06]And it was just as well, for at that moment, one of the N25's engines suddenly failed, forcing Rise Alas and put the aircraft down in a nearby lead in the ice. A few minutes later, Duchersonen landed the N24 5 km away.

[00:13:18]But as soon as the N24 skidded to a halt, the aluminium hole began to flood with water. The landing had sheared off a number of rivets. If the aircraft sank, it would take with it the extra fuel needed to carry the N25 and the explorers the rest of the way to Alaska.

[00:13:30]The crew thus raced against time to drag the swamped aircraft up onto the ice.

[00:13:35]Meanwhile, back at N25, Ammonson made a disappointing discovery. The expedition had only reached a little over 87 degrees latitude, farther north than any aircraft had flown before, but still more than 240 km short of the North Pole. But at that moment, the expedition faced far bigger problems despite heroic efforts by Ellsworth and Dietrien. It soon became clear that the N24 would never fly again. The exhaust system was burned out and the valves irreparably damaged. Her crew thus packed up all of the supplies that they could and set off towards the N25. However, the rough ice conditions eventually defeated them while Dietrixen, who had forgotten to wear his protective goggles, was rendered snowb blind. When he finally recovered a few days later, he and Ellsworth set off once again across the ice, but gave up after 7 hours and returned to the N24. But there was some good news. By May 23rd, the drifting pack ice had brought the two aircraft close enough for the crews to communicate by signal flags, and the crew of the N24 once again attempted a crossing of the ice. The expedition nearly ended in disaster as Dietrixen and Omdal fell through thin ice into the frigid Arctic ocean below. Only quick action by Ellsworth saved them from an icy death. Though both were frozen to the bone and Dietrixen had broken five teeth. They were alive and eventually reached the N25. By this time, the lead they had landed in had frozen over. So, the crew spent the next 4 days hacking the aircraft out with axes [music] and hauling her up onto the ice. They then set up camp surviving on hot chocolate pemkin [music] and melted old sea ice while they waited for a lead to open up that would allow them to take off. Weeks passed and yet no leads appeared. The weather remaining unseasonably cold and some calculated they could wait until June the 15th at the latest before their dwindling rations finally ran out. But as the deadline drew nearer, still no leads approached in the ice. With time running out, the expedition decided to take a gamble and try taking off from the ice instead. Thus, despite being exhausted and on partial rations, they hacked away an estimated 600 tons of ice and slowly, painstakingly dragged the aircraft toward the nearest [music] suitable runway. By June the 14th, one day before the deadline, they were finally ready, but slushy conditions prevented to take off. The next morning, the slush had frozen, and the crew clambored into the N25, revved up the engines, and barreled down the ice runway. Despite a hair raising ride, the flying boat finally crawled into the air, and the explorers turned south and headed for home. Eight hours later, they just cighted the northern coast of Spitsburg and when a jammed rudder forced them to set down on the ocean.

[00:15:52]They then taxied over the water until they came across a ceiling ship which took the aircraft undertoe and carried the crew back to King's Bay. The expedition's safe return came as a shock to the rest of the [music] world who had assumed they had perished out on the ice. The 1925 expedition convinced the Woodson that heavier than air aircraft were not yet mature enough for polar exploration and thus he turned his attention to arrival technology, the airship. In late 1925, backed by Ellsworth and the Aero Club of Norway, Amunson chartered a brand new semi- rigid airship recently [music] completed by Italian aviator, engineer, and air force general Ombberto Noil. Christen the Norway, the craft measured 106 m long, held [music] 90,000 m of hydrogen lifting gas, and was powered by three 260 horsepower Mayback engines that gave it a top speed of 112 km/h, and a maximum range of 5,600 km. On April the 13th, 1926, a Munson and Ellsworth arrived in Kings Bay's Pittsburghen to set up the expedition's base camp. The following day, the Nor commanded by Nobel took off [music] from Rome and flew north, making stops in Pulham, England, Lennengrad, the Soviet Union, and Oslo, and Vadzo in Norway before [music] reaching Kings Bay on May the 7th. But no sooner had heed the Nor into her open topped hanger, Nobel received some alarming news. A rival expedition led by US Navy Lieutenant Richard E.

[00:17:06]bird had arrived in Kings Bay 6 days after Amunson and Ellsworth and were also preparing to fly to the pole.

[00:17:12]Funded by such luminaries as John D.

[00:17:14]Rockefeller Jr., Vincent Aster, and Edel Ford, son of Henry Ford, Bird's expedition had acquired a Fauler F7 tri motor, christened the Josephine Ford after Edel Ford's daughter, which had just enough range to make the 2400 km round trip to the pole and back. Eager to beat the Americans to the punch, Nobel told Amunson that he could make the Nord ready to fly within 6 hours.

[00:17:34]But among them, wary of reports of incoming bird weather, preferred to wait. After all, he was interested in exploration, not merely setting records.

[00:17:41]His crew thus struck up a cordial relationship with birds, inviting them to dinner aboard their ship, and providing the Americans with vital survival equipment like snowshoes and sledges. Finally, on May the 8th, 1926, Bird and pilot Floyd Bennett taxied the Josephine Ford onto the ice runway and attempted a takeoff. However, the aircraft proved overloaded and failed to leave the ground. After stripping the aircraft of all unnecessary weight, the pair tried again. And at 1:30 a.m. on May the 9th, the Josephine Ford lifted off the runway and banked north toward the elusive pole. For such a historic undertaking, the flight was surprisingly uneventful with the only real hiccup being a small oil leak caused by a loose rivet in the tank. However, once the oil level dropped below the rivet, the leak stopped and the Josephine Ford flew on while Bennett kept the aircraft steady.

[00:18:21]Bird bundled in the back in polar bear fur pants, busily tended to his navigation instruments, painstakingly tracking their progress across the featureless wasteland. Occasionally he stopped to glance out the window at the vast expanse of Pack eyes, later recalling that quote, "We felt no larger than a pinpoint and as lonely as the tomb, as remote and detached as a star."

[00:18:41]Then, after 8 hours in the Airbirds instruments indicated that they were over the pole, and he and Bennett turned back and headed for home. Helped along by a 160 km perh tailwind, they landed in Kings 4:30 p.m., 15 hours after takeoff. Bird and Bennett were fated across the United States, receiving a parade in New York City and receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor.

[00:18:59]However, some were skeptical of their claims. In the 1950s, Norwegian American explorer and bush pilot Burnt Barkin, later one of the first men to fly over the South Pole, argued that even with the tailwinds reported by Bird, the Fauler F7 did not have the range to reach the pole. Furthermore, weather charts compiled at meteorological stations in Russia and Alaska showed calm air over the pole on that day.

[00:19:19]Finally, when Bird's navigation diary was examined, several erased [music] but legible sex readings were discovered, indicating that he had only made it 80% of the way to the pole before turning back. Nonetheless, Bird and Bennett are still widely recognized as the first to reach the North Pole by air, though their claims remain rather controversial. Undaunted, Amunson, Ellsworth, and Nobel carried on with their preparations. Though they had been beaten to the pole, there still was glory to be had in crossing the top of the world non-stop. Their route would take them 1600 km from King's Bay over the North Pole to Point Barrow, Alaska, and then south to Gnome, where the airship would be dismantled for shipment back to Italy. But while the Nord had far greater endurance and range than the Dornia flying boats of Amunson's 1925 expedition, the crossing would be no less hazardous. The airship carried barely enough fuel to cover the distance and no ballast. If the crew encountered strong enough headwinds, icing, a gas leak, or any other complications, there was a good chance they would become stranded on the ice pack, far from any possible rescue. On May the 11th, 1926, the weather cleared and the Nor lifted off from King's Bay with a crew of 16, including Amunson, Noble, Ellsworth, and seven Norwegians. five Italians and one Swede. Cruising along at 80 km an hour and at an altitude of 400 meters, the airship soon entered a thick bank of fog which made navigation difficult and caused ice to build up on the airframe.

[00:20:33]Noble thus pulled up to 1,000 m to clear the fog. The rest of the flight was largely uneventful and at 1:30 a.m. on May the 12th, the nor finally crossed the North Pole. In that moment, Amunson and crew member Oscar Whistling, who had accompanied Amunson on his 1911 expedition to Antarctica, became the first people to conquer both poles. In a modest celebration of their accomplishment, Amunson and Ellsworth through small handkerchiefsized Norwegian and American flags overboard.

[00:20:58]But then, noble, patriotic, but tackless, proceeded to drop a massive Italian flag, an act of one-upmanship, which irritated Mson to no end. It would not be the last time the two explorers would butt heads. Though they had reached the pole, the ordeal was far from over for the crew of the Norge.

[00:21:13]Nearly a thousand more kilometers and 24 hours of flying remains before they reach Point Barrow. So small was the ship's crew that not all were able to rest adequately, while the conditions aboard were so cramped and frigid that sleep was all impossible. But on the morning of May the 13th, the cold and exhausted crew finally spotted the coast of Alaska and turned south towards Gnome. However, they were soon beset by thick fog and violent crosswinds. After struggling through this weather for 24 hours, Noble finally decided to land near the tiny Inuit [music] settlement of Teller. The Nor touched down at 7:30 a.m. on May the 14th, 1926. Having just completed the first aerial crossing of the Arctic, the epic 5,088 km journey had taken only 70 hours and 40 minutes.

[00:21:52]While from Rome to Gnome, the Nor had traversed some 12,500 km, nearly a third of the planet's circumference in 171 hours. The expedition had also proven that no solid land existed in the vast expanse of pack ice between Spitsburg and an Alaska. The mysterious croc of lands reported by Robert Perry. It was nothing but an illusion. But this grand accomplishment was soon soured by the simmering rivalry between Amunson and Nobel. While Amunson considered himself ahead of the expedition and Nobel merely a hired pilot, it was Nobel who received all the glory with both US President Calvin Kulage and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini holding grand receptions in his honor. Already irritated by the upstart Italian, Ammanson now became a bitter enemy, dedicating no fewer than 95 pages of his 1927 memoir, My Life as an Explorer, to denouncing Noble and downplaying his contributions. But Amanson, now in the twilight of his career, could do little to harm Nobles's reputation, and he retired from exploration soon after.

[00:22:47]Meanwhile, Noble pressed on with plans for even greater feats of aerial Arctic exploration, feats which would further glorify Mussolini's fascist state. The flight of the Nor had covered some 128,000 km of previously uncharted ice cap, but 3.8 million still remain to be explored. Noble thus proposed a series of long-d distanceance flights to cover the rest, and designed a new airship dubbed the Italia for this purpose. This expedition would be far more ambitious and dangerous than even the precarious flight of the Nor, a fact which Noble acknowledged in a speech given in Milan.

[00:23:20]To quote him here, "We have absolute confidence in the preparation of the expedition. All that could be foreseen has been foreseen, even the possibility of failure or catastrophe. We are quite aware that our venture is difficult and dangerous, even more so than that of 1926. But it is this very difficulty and danger that attracts us. Had it been safe and easy, other people would have already preceded us. Completed in early 1928, the Italia was nearly identical to the Nor, save for a slightly larger lifting gas capacity. On April 15th, 1928, the airship lifted off from Milan and headed north toward King's Bay with 18 men aboard. The expedition commander, Noble, helmsman, Renato Alisandrini, physicist Aldo Pontrioli. Journalists Ugo Larago and Francisco Thomaselli.

[00:24:01]Navigators Ad Alberto Mariano, Filipo Zappi, and Alfredo Viglieri. Elevator operators Natalie Cesion and Felit Triani. Radio operators Jeppe Biagi and Pedrreti. Engine mechanics atore Arduan, Kalisto Sioca, Atillo Serati, and Vincenzo Pomeo. Swedish meteorologist Finn Malmgrren and Czechoslovak physicist Franttoek Baholeneck. While crossing northern Italy and southern Germany, Italia ran into severe hail storms which damaged the propellers, envelope, and tail fins and forced her to land in Germany, today slupsk in Poland for repairs. This took 10 days as the necessary technicians had to be brought in from Italy. Finally, on May the third, Italia lifted off once again and continued north, reaching the airship mast at Vardo in Norway early the next morning. After being grounded for several days due to bad weather, on May the 6th, the airship finally reached King's Bay where a support ship Citadano was already anchored. Captained by Jeppe Raagna Manoa, the ship would serve as the expedition's main base of operations and radio station. Noble planned three flights for the Italia, each exploring a different region of the Arctic. The first flight took off on May the 11th, but Noble was forced to turn back after only eight hours due to heavy ice buildup on the Italia's envelope and the fraying of the control cables. The second flight, which departed on the 15th of May, was far more successful in drawing clear weather and covering 4,000 km of uncharted territory in 60 hours.

[00:25:26]In addition to geographic and pack ice observations, physicists Bholeneck and Pontraoli took valuable measurements on magnetic phenomena and cosmic rays. The third and final expedition departed at 4:38 a.m. on May the 23rd with 16 men aboard, journalist Francisco Ramoselli and radio operator Padretti remaining back in King's Bay. Though's plan was to reach the North Pole via a new route along the Greenland coast. Once there, the Italia would drop a team of scientists onto the ice and circle the pole before picking up the team and depending on weather conditions, either circling back to the Siberian island of Savanar Zmler or carrying on northward toward Canada. Assisted by strong tailwinds, Italia reached the pole in 19 hours. As weather conditions made dropping off the scientific team impossible, Noble instead circled the pole, conducting a brief patriotic ceremony in which the Italian Milan flags, a medal of the Virgin of Fire, and a giant wooden cross applied by Pope Pius the 11th were dropped onto the ice.

[00:26:22]Meanwhile, an onboard gramophone played the fascist battle him Giovenza. But despite the celebratory mood, Noble now faced a difficult decision. weather conditions were rapidly deteriorating, making both his planned courses unattractive, and the headwinds which had helped the Italia to the pole would work against her on the way back to King's Bay. However, meteorologist Finn Malgren predicted that the strong southerntherly winds would soon give way to mild northerlys. Noble thus decided to turn south and return to King's Bay.

[00:26:48]Unfortunately, Mahren's predictions failed to materialize, and the crew of the Italia soon found themselves fighting thick icy fog, violent snow flurries, and an ever accelerating headwind that slowed their ground speed to a mere 40 km/h. Meanwhile, thick layers of ice accumulated on the envelope and control surfaces, making the airship difficult to control, while the propellers flung chunks of ice through the envelope like bullets.

[00:27:11]Conditions continued to get worse and worse until at 9:25 a.m. on May the 25th, while cruising at only 230 m, Italia's elevators jammed in the upward position, sending the airship into a steep nose dive. Acting quickly, Nobel ordered all engines stopped, managing to halt the dive a mere 76 m above the ice cap. Without power, the airship quickly rose to an altitude of 2700, rising above the icy fog. This allowed the navigators to fix the airship's position, still more than 280 km northeast of King's Bay. But as the airship emerged into the sun, the hydrogen gas in her envelope expanded and vented out the safety relief valves, making her less buoyant. Once the elevator cables were finally repaired, Noble ordered Italia back down into the fog to prevent further gas loss. For the next half hour, Italia struggled on through howling winds and dense freezing fog until suddenly she began to sink by the tail. Noble ordered all engines full, but it was too late. The airship slammed into the ice, tearing off the control car and the rear engine gondola and depositing 10 men onto the ice. The envelope suddenly much lighter, sprang back into the air and drifted away, carrying the remaining six men with it.

[00:28:14]They were never heard from again.

[00:28:16]Meanwhile, back at the crash site, the situation was grim. One man, rear engine mechanic Venenza Pomela, had been killed on impact, and many more were severely injured. Worst among the injured was Nobel himself, who had broken his right arm and leg. The nine men were stranded on the baron pack ice in freezing conditions hundreds of kilometers from help. But there was some good news. In an act of selfless heroism, the crew trapped aboard the envelope had tossed as much of the scientific team survival gear onto the ice as they could before the wind carried off the envelope. Among this gear, the survivors found a tent, a revolver, 45 days worth of rations, and a portable survival radio, which radio operator Geppe Biagi soon managed to get working. Immediately he began sending distress signals back to King's Bay, but nobody was listening. Back at the Citad Milano, radio operators had ceased monitoring transmissions from the Italia. They were too busy transmitting personal messages from the crew or news stories to journalists. And when one young operator reported hearing a faint SOS, his claim was dismissed. Captain Raagna would later make all sorts of excuses, including that he believed the Italia's transmitter to be broken or her crew to be dead. In reality, his lack of action was likely informed by politics.

[00:29:20]Rald Munson was not the only major enemy the naive Nobel had made. He had also fallen into the crosshairs of founding Italian fascist Italo Balo, then marshall of the air force. Derisive of Nobel, whom he publicly called a primadona and convinced that aircraft, not airship, were the future of Italian aviation. Balo worked behind the scenes to discredit Noble in the eyes of Mussolini and other top government officials. Indeed, when Noble first announced his plan to return to the Arctic, Iduche was skeptical, warning, "Perhaps it would be better not to tempt fate a second time." Balo, however, insisted, "Let him go, for he cannot possibly come back to bother us anymore." Balbo further turned down Nobel's request for three sea planes to help rescue his crew in the event of a crash and spread rumors that Noel, who had little interest in politics outside of simple patriotism, was secretly a communist and anti-fascist resistance leader. Thus, as he waited for rescue out on the ice, Noble was unaware that as far as the Italian government was concerned, he and his men were as good as dead already. But as more days passed with no news from the Italia, the government came under increasing pressure to mount a rescue effort.

[00:30:22]Finally, on May the 27th, the Citad Milano was ordered to leave King's Bay and and sailed towards Spitsburgen's northern coast. However, thick sea ice severely impeded her progress.

[00:30:31]Nonetheless, on reaching the north coast, Captain Jonato Sorer of the Italian Army Alpini Ski Detachments led a heroic over ice attempt to reach the survivors camp, but was unsuccessful.

[00:30:41][music] On the same day, the Italian government hired two Norwegian whailing vessels, the Briganza and the Hobby, to search for the Italia. Aboard were two pilots, Finn Lutzo Hull and Rald Dwoodson's old colleague, Hajar Riser Larsen, along with two aircraft to assist in the rescue. However, their progress was also impeded by the ice. It quickly became clear that only a purpose-built icebreaker would be suited to the task. [music] Soon, the search for the Italian's crew turned into an international affair with a total of seven nations contributing men and equipment to the rescue effort.

[00:31:12]Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and France sent dozens of ships, aircraft, and pilots.

[00:31:16]While the Soviet Union dispatched three ice breakers, the Malagin, the Sedov, and the Crassen, the former of which were equipped with Joner's monoplanes flown by pilots Boris Chucknowski and Mika Babushkin, who in 1937 became the first person to land an aircraft at the North Pole while resupplying a Soviet drifting ice station. And for more on the fascinating history of these installations, please do check out our previous videos, A to Total Legal Cluster, Murder on the Ice, and the Real Story of Capturing an Ice Fortress with a badass James Bond film device.

[00:31:46]Eventually, Arturo Mackanti, a former Air Force chief and personal friend of Nobels, convinced the Italian government to contribute three flying boats, two Dornia VS, and a Seavoya Machete S55 piloted by Air Force majors Luigi Penzo, Ivor Rzonei, and Ombberto Malina. But perhaps the most surprising member of the search effort was Nobel's bitter rival, Rald Mudson. Upon hearing of Nobel's disappearance, Amson set aside his animosity and quickly organized an effort to rescue his old colleague. On June the 28th, along with pilots Leaf Dietrixen and Renee Gilbard and three other French crew members, and Munson took off from Trombo in Norway in a French Latham 47 flying boat and headed north towards Spitsburgen. They were never seen again. Though parts of the aircraft were later found washed up on the Norwegian coast, the bodies of Unson and his colleagues were never recovered.

[00:32:32][music] Meanwhile, conditions at the survivors camp were getting steadily worse. The drifting ice pack was carrying them further and further away from King's Bay, traveling more than 20 km per day. While the men were equipped with fleece lined flying clothing, they did not have very much proper Arctic gear and suffered greatly in the bitter cold. Meteorologist Finn Malgren was also behaving erratically. guilty over his role in the crash and likely suffering from internal injuries. He twice had to be stopped from committing suicide. One time by drowning himself in the ocean and another by shooting himself with the expedition's revolver.

[00:33:02]But on May the 29th, he partially absolved himself by shooting a curious polar bear that wandered into the camp, supplementing the survivors rations with 180 kg of fresh meat. Soon he and navigators Filipo Zappy and Alberto Mariano grew tired of waiting for rescue, and on May the 30th decided to set off on foot in search of help. All the while, radio operator Ger Piag continued to send regular distress signals and monitor the airwaves, receiving sports scores and updates on the international search for the Italia.

[00:33:29]Unfortunately, the search and rescue effort was badly coordinated and operating largely in the dark. As Miagi's distress signals had not been picked up, nobody knew exactly what, if anything, had happened to the Italia or where on the ice pack the survivors were located. But all of that was about to change thanks to a curious twist of fate. On June the 3rd, Nikolai Schmidt, a 21-year-old radio amateur in the Russian village of Vauma, more than 2,000 km southeast of Spitsburg and picked up one of Baragi's distress signals. Though Schmidt knew the Italia was in the Arctic, news of her disappearance had not yet reached his remote village. He thus sent a telegram to the radio friends company in Moscow, who passed it on to the Council of People's Commissars, who in turn informed the Italian government. Upon hearing of this discovery over the radio, Noble ordered the survivor's tent painted in red stripes to make it more visible to rescue aircraft. This was done with an analigned die from marker [music] bombs used to determine the airship's ground speed. 2 days later on June the 5th, Italian Air Force Major Ombberto Matalina, homing in [music] on the Byagi's radio signal, made the first sighting of the survivors camp and dropped parcels containing radio batteries, warm boots, smoke signals, and food, including eggs, marmalade, and fresh fruit. 2 days later, he returned and dropped more supplies, including meds, a cooking stove, and cigarettes.

[00:34:40]By this time, the summer heat was beginning to melt the pack ice, and large pools of water were forming around the tiny red tent. Time was running out for the crew of the Italia. On June the 18th, Captain Jinaro Sorer of the elite Italian Alpini Mountain Infantry, accompanied by Arctic explorers Ludvig Varming and Stefan Dongan set off from the city of Milano on foot and dogs to try and reach the survivors camp, but ice conditions eventually forced them to turn back. [music] On June the 22nd, an aircraft flown by Swedish pilot Lundborg dropped more parcels, including two bottles of whiskey, as well as a message announcing that he would make a landing the following day if the survivors marked out a suitable site. Noble duly ordered a flat section of ice marked out with strips [music] of red parachute silk, and as promised, the next day, Lunborg made a safe landing. However, conflict soon broke out when Lunborg insisted on taking Nobel and Noble alone. Noble refused, arguing that as commander of the mission, he should be the last to leave the ice. But Lunore countered he would be of more use aboard the Citad Milano coordinating further rescue efforts than lying with a broken arm and leg on the ice. Noble reluctantly agreed and soon he and his dog Tatina were winging their way back to Spitzburg. Yet despite Lungorg's promises when Noble arrived abroad the city de Milano, Captain Raagna ordered him confined to his cabin where he could contribute little to rescue efforts. The decision to leave his men behind would haunt Noble for the rest of his life. By early June 1928, nearly six weeks after the Italia had crashed, no further survivors had been rescued, and the red tent was almost completely surrounded by frigid meltwater. On the same day, he had picked up Noel. Aa Lunborg had attempted to fly back to rescue more survivors, but had crashed on landing and become stranded on the ice. On July the 6th, he was rescued by fellow Swede Burger Shyberg in a lightweight biplane.

[00:36:17]Shoberg originally intended to return to the campsite to pick up more survivors, but deteriorating ice conditions made this impossible and the Swedish contingent officially pulled out of the rescue effort. Shortly thereafter, the Norwegians, Fins, French Italians, and Danes also pulled out. The Soviet ice breakers Malagan and Sed off had also become stuck in the ice. The last remaining hope for the survivors was the Crassen slowly plowing its way through the 2 m thick ice pack at barely 2 kmh.

[00:36:40][music] Despite running low on coal and damaging its propeller, on July the 12th, Crassen finally spotted two figures on the ice.

[00:36:46]It was Filipo Zappy and Adberto Mariano who had set out on foot in search of help. Margen, they revealed, had died one month before, depressed and exhausted. He simply lay down in the snow and never got up. For years, rumors would swirl that the two Italians had cannibalized the Swede in order to stay alive. Pressing on, the crassen eventually reached the red tent and rescued the remaining five survivors. In total, eight of the Italian's crew and nine rescuers, including Rald Munson, died in the Arctic airship disaster of 1928. But for the leader of the expedition, General Ombberto Noil, the ordeal was far from over. Despite having little choice in the matter, Nobel was roundly criticized for abandoning his men and disowned by his own government.

[00:37:24]Several months after the disaster, an official inquiry found Noble responsible for the loss of the Italia and guilty of dereliction of duty. Disgraced, he moved to the Soviet Union, where he helped design a number of semi-rigid airships.

[00:37:35]After briefly returning to Italy following the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Noble moved to the United States to teach aeronautics at Lewis University in Illinois. Though offered US citizenship, he declined and returned to Europe in 1942, starting first in Rome before moving to neutral Spain, where he spent the rest of the war. In 1945, the Italian Air Force cleared Nobel of all charges relating to the Italia disaster and promoted him to the rank of Lieutenant General, prompting him to return to his home country. His reputation restored. He was later elected to the Italian constituents assembly as an independent candidate affiliated with the Communist Party and taught aeronautical engineering at the University of Naples.

[00:38:10]Alberto Nobel, Arctic exploration pioneer, died in Rome in 1978 [music] at the age of 93. Today, flying over the North Pole is so routine it hardly warrants mention with dozens of commercial flights every day taking the polar route over the top of the world.

[00:38:23]But as with any now common feat, someone had to do it first. And it is thanks to the bravery, determination, and sacrifice of pioneering explorers like Alberto Nobel and Ralden Woodson that this great world of ours has gotten so much smaller.