Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-02
Tiny Airship Used for Scout
ing Is Missing Since
Christmas Day.
BYRD PARTY IS UNABLE
TO ASSIST IN SEARCH
Explorers at Little America Feel
Loss of Norwegian Aviator
and Doctor.
BY RUSSELL OWEN,


BY wireless to The Star and the New York
| Times
LITTLE AMERICA, Antarctica.
January Another tragedy has been
written on the ice-strewn sea of the
Antarctic. An airplane used in scout
| ing for whales by the whaler Kosmos
has vanished near the edge of the ice
pack despite a search for it since
Christmas Day. 1t was flown by Left
Lier, a well known pilot in Norway,
who had with him as passenger DR..
Ingvald-Schreiner, the ships doctor and
the son Of we'll known physician in
Oslo.
The search for the missing men is
being continued by the Kosmos, al
though after five days of desperate
effort in which the entire ice pack was
penetrated deeply between Scott Island
and the Balleny Islands, there is little
hope that they will be found.
Victims of Sudden Mishap.
What happened to them must have
come so suddenly that Lier had no OPP
portunity to make a safe landing on
the ice or in sheltered ice bay.
The loss Of the two young men, both
Of whom were popular on the ship and
at home spoiled the Christmas season
for the whalers and they are all sad
dened by the accident, which they could
not avert and which they have tried
so hard to meet by the rescue opera
tons.
The Kosmos, which is commanded by
Capt. Andersen, Is the largest of the
Norwegian whalers, a 22,O00-ton ship,
and was built especially for this work
1t is really floating factory for the
rendering Of blubber from the whales
brought alongside by the small chaSers.
It has been thought in recent years
that an airplane would be of value in
spotting whales, and Admiral Byrd's ex-
petition, coming through last year, APP
parently did much to hasten the ex-
pertinent. A light two-Seater airplane,
a Gypsy Moth, with a l00-horsepower
Cyrus engine, was fitted with pontoons
and Lief Lier was engaged as pilot.
Lier Known to Men With Byrd.
Lier is well known to several members
of the Byrd expedition. Bernt Belchen
knew him we'll and so did Carl Petersen
one Of our radio operators, and I met
him in Oslo while on the way to Spitz-
bergen with Capt. Roald Amundsen and
Lincoln Ellsworth in 1925. He was a
tall handsome man, about 80 years old,
who until this trip has been doing COM
mercial flying in Norway, using his own
ships.
He learned to fly in Hungary in 1921
and, after seven hours of solo flying
bought a plane and flew 1t home over
Germany and Sweden, quite a feat for
a new pilot. Since then he has had
many planes and at times has flown on
mail runs in Norway.
He had promised to fly over to see us
IL the Kosmos got near enough and the
day before Christmas he sent us q
Christmas message. So every one feels
as deeply about his disappearance as
though he had been a member Of this
expedition. We all knew what he was
up against.
Lier had made several good flights
from the Kosmo5 in his small plane
and its use had been completely sue
ceSsful in whaling. On one day he
few in all about 700 miles.
He was always careful, knowing the
dangers of getting out of touch with
the ships and, in addition to using the
radio when he few alone. he generally
kept along the edge of the pack with
the mother ship or some of the chasers
in sight But on the occasion of his
most recent fight he did not carry
radio because Of the added weight Of
his passenger.
On the day Lier disappeared, whaling
operations had been resumed after the
Christmas festivities. The whalers are
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