The Nome nugget., 1929-10-12
DoRBANDT TELLS OF
 SEARCH FOR MERRILL

rom Anchorage, Pilot DOrbandt relates the following story in re- ference to the disappearance of Pilot Russell Merrill and his plane l after taking of from Anchorage on pontoons enroute to Slietmut, in the Kuskokwim section.
 Pilot Merrill hopped off from Anchorage without passengers but had some freight for two places enrOute to Slietmut, and was to return with some passengers. In leaving Anchorage the route of airplane flights leads across Cook Inlet and in order to cross this expanse of water an elevation of to 5 thousand feet is deemed necessary. On the opposite shore two creeks flow into the inlet and at each of these points there are two men who keep diary of things that happen from day tc | day, the year around. But upon l investigation. neither of the men | heard or saw the plane go by, although their diaries show all i other trips of the planes coming and going.
 About three quarters of the dis tance to Slietmut there is trap per's cabin where Merrill was to land and unload some freight, but 1 the trapper said he never arrived there. At Slietmut he was also to make a landing, but no signs l of the plane had been seen. Many trips were made over this route by searching planes, which zig gag ged the surrounding country in twenty mile stretches, without finding any evidence.
 The rumors of persons seeing 1 wreckage or a plane floating on | the waters of Cooks Inlet, were also Investigated but no plane or pilot could be found. Pilot | Dorbandt made an extra flight from Anchorage over a broad. ex- panse in different section but found nothing. However, he talked with the wife of a Russian priest on the shores of Cook In let and the. woman told him of seeing something floating on the water, and as she could not speak very good English. she was ask ed to take lead pencil and make lines of what she saw. Pilot Dor bandt soon recognized from her drawing that it was a plane with pontoons floating upside down down the Inlet toward the sea It was then that Gov. Parks was appealed to for assistance in send ing for a coast guard vessel to continue the search farther down the inlet, as the planes were not able to carry enough gasoline to make the round trip and no place to land.
 | While hope has not entirely
 
 been given up. it is hoped that pilot Merrill was lucky enough to get ashore and may still be alive. although the odds are not in his | favor. It is believed that while Merrill was crossing the Inlet, something went wrong with the en- zine or some part of the plane intself. thus causing sudden drop into the Inlet, thus drowning | him. It is we'll known fact that no one who has ever met with accident in the waters of the Inlet, and who tried to swim ashore. never lived to tell the ,ale.
 The air in the gas tanks and also in the big pontoons was sui ficient, in case the plane turned upside down, to float the plane with the cockpit still out of wat CT. Merrill while travelling with passenger about a year ago had similar experience happen to the westward, when the plane cap sized and the pilot and passen- ger climbed out and sat on top un- til the plane drifted into shore.
 The plane was righted, then. and later put in condition to fly again. Mystery still surrounds the af- fair and no one is able to state