The Daily Alaska empire., 1939-02-07
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SOVIET POLAR PLIERS?


 On August 13 1887, the Soviet arplane H2o9 with crew of six men disappeared somewhere on the Alaska side of the North Pole during an attempt tol fly from Moscow to Fairbanks.
 The only distress message 6hat for certain, was from the plane two hours after the airmen had crossed the Pole and said that of the four motors of the H-209 had gone dead through damage to ani oil line forcing the plane to descend from its altitude of nearly 10000 feet twhere it had been flying in al bright and dry air above the clouds) to ceformng cloud at 13o0O feet Two or three radio stations re- ported shortly thereafter receiving final message we are landing in and then some unintellgible signals.
 Thas was IS months ago and despite concen- trated search of the polar and of the northern Alaska coast we know nothing at all about what the fate of the fliers was
 There is still hope, and will be until 1943 that one or more men of the Soviet plane will make their way a settlement.
 This is the opinion of Vihjalmur Stetansson, Arc tic explorer who this month published book 'Un- solved Mysteries the Arctic" the final chapter of which deals with the Soviet plane disappearance.
 The chances that sigismund Levanesvsky or some of his will through to safety yet are reck- oned up by StefanSson as follows:
 Original chance of death cripping injury, through a bad landing, 50 percent-because of summer icing Of wings and summer corrosion of ice Gevan- evsky flying at the worst possible time of the year, Stefansson holds since it is only in the summer that there moisture above the polar which will ice plane; and only in summer that there is not smooth ice almost everywhere on which to make andng)
 Chance after safe landing, of being able to live by food and fuel secured the ice, unin- habited Arctic island. 50 percent. The chance that the party still alive year from descent upon the pack is, therefore, 25 percent.
 fIavla they drfted with the ice pack foe toward the Atlantic did the Papann expedition the year in a somewhat similar circumstance the Soviet plane survivors would have died by drowning before the end of the summer of 1888 the ice which they dIifted melting under them. The chance of their being alive on January l 1859 will then be zero unless just conceivably they left the ice as it was passing Peary Land farther southeast In that they have tiny chance to reach the Norwegians i northeast Greenland
 stefansson mentions the possibility however that there could be i'll the polar current somewhere not far the Alaska side of the Levanevsky descent and that the plane may have descended at this or even south of it. in which they would find themselves in more less of eddy in cold which would never melt the floe. If they thus drifted toward Borden Island and Alaska, their chance of living through the present winter. either the ice or one of the Canadian islands is again 50 percent Hall of the previous quarter is l2l2 percent.
 If the party should live through the present year they would live indefinitely, Sefansson says like the Russian sailors of spsbergen who had much trouble the first year meat exclusively. little the second and during the remaining four years til they were picked up. stefansson says the Arctic i. the friendliest part of the globe which live witt food plentiful and solid ice underfoot It has beer proved repeatedly Stefansson argues that white mer as well as Eskimos thrive diet of polar beal and seal meat exclusively, if they careful to cal the fat as well as the lean
 The Soviet decision close the search on the an nversary of the H-209s leaving Moscow was in prac- tice right, Steiansson says. If the drift towarc the Atlantic as sfne Russians believe Levanevskys camp site has melted under him and all trace of the plane and par8 is now the bottom of the Atlantic f the drift was some other we have no idea where te boS
 The firal' chance that one or more members of tile Leyanesrskv party will win through is only per- haps one in hundred stefansson concludes
 But it is not unknown for hundred to-one chance win There is still ray of hope for Levan- evsky up four or five years his disappearance Inside that time would surely leave whatever camp they had. drifting ice uninhabited island and travel toward settlement If they fail to reach settlement by 1943, six after their disappear anee. all reasonable hope will be gone
 Other chapters in StefanSson's book all compara- lively ancient history and of less interest to Aaskans cea with the disappearance Of the Greenland colony Of 5000 Europeans in the 18th century the death ot Sir John Franklin and his party Of more than loC men exploration trip n Northern Canada in the l940s an examination into the alleged suicide of Thomas Simpson discoVerer of the Northwest 16o years ago: and new study Of the Andree mystery
 Perhaps, though 1t is not likely the Levanevsk, riddle Wilroes solved day by discovery of relic oi 3 tragedy as occurred A the case of Andree tn,