Evening star., 1947-01-04
Henry
Continued From First page.)

were kGpI Oh wafer Dy QGIlSc tUR
low clouds. and swirling snow. Every
hour brings radio messages of cheer
telling preparations sent out, wiGh
hope the. party will be picked up II
alive and marooned. Every Il
minutes horning signal is put ON
the air, in case they can repair the
disabled plane and get it started
again.
Admiral Cruzen says, there is
better than $3.50 chance the men
are alive. The area in which they
disappeared was discovered only six
years ago by Admiral Richard E
Byrd and Capt. G. J. Dufek, now
commander of the Eastern Task
Force, from which the flight started
Ahead of the ship is $50 miles OF
ice barriers Beyond Capt. Dufek
and Admiral Byrd saw from the air
large area of open sea, washing
the shores of Thurston Peninsula
On land there was. a. low range OF
mountains. The crew on the pre-
vious flight had reported the sea
still existing - ..yess~. ,.-
On Photographic Trip.
The plane took off on a photo
graphic exploration trip planned by
the expedition. The plane crew
planned a 10-houE fight over the
continent for $50 miles and return,
but carried sufficient gas. for 20
hours. A message, was received 2
hours 40 minutes later-"Very low
ceiling, less than 10000 feet. OBJ
jeets not visible 2 miles. Snow and
sleet. Sky very completely over
cast"
This was about $50 miles from
the base. A disaster of some sort
was certain when 20 hours went by
without further message.
Can Associated Press dispatch
from Alton L. BlakeSlee, also on
board the U. S. S. Mount Olym-
pus, said that fragmentary voice
radio transmission was heard
when the plane was hours out
on its scheduled 10-hour trip.
But apparently it could not be
established that the transmission
came from the plane)
There are three possibilities, says
Admiral Cruzen. First, in their ef-
fort to get above the clouds the
plane may have entered a region
of high winds, with no way of esti-
mating the drift and have gone
far off its. course, to land, in the
sea before the ice barrier. In this
case, the destroyer U. s. S. Borenson
stands waiting to dash there when
they are located.
Second, they may have landed on
the sea itself, far in the open water
beyond the barriers discovered by
Capt. Dufek. In this case, rescue
by seaplane may be possible
Gas Caches to Be Set Up.
The other possibility is that fog
closed in very rapidly and the plane
crashed into mountains, known to
be directly ahead. In this case, IL
the men are alive rescue efforts
must wait until the expedition
reaches Little America, from which
land planes can be dispatched. Ad-
miral Cruzen plans to set up gas
CacneS along the route, lana q plane
as close as possible and complete
rescue with dog teams if necessary
to enter, the mountains.
Loss of radio communications does
not absolutely indicate disaster
since these have been very bad the
last few days due to excess of par
ticles from sun in the high atmos-
phere near South Pole.
If the men are alive no great diff
Guilty is expected in locating them
If .uninjured, the men can live a
days on ice or land without extra
supplies. The search planes are
both loaded with emergency fooc
and medical supplies.
The time of last message indicate.
the men were on the coast. Twenty
miles beyond lies land never fiowr
over or seen by human eye-a great
white blank on the map. Into Il
extends for an unknown distance
toward the South Pole, the 5000.
foot-high Demas Mountain. Range