Evening star., 1948-01-07
Rome Mapping Plane
esForced Landinu
On Antarctic IcefieId
By Comdr. Finn Rome
North American New<no,ey Alliance

RONNE ANTARCTIC BASE
Stonington Island, Dec. 81 delayed
On its last mapping flight of the
year, the trimetrogon camera equip
ped Beechcraft plane, Ed Sweeney
had to make a forced landing in a
heavily crevassed area IS miles
away from this base today, with
Capt. James Lassiter at the controls
At an altitude of 5000 feet, Capt.
Lassiter suddenly observed the
planes port engine vibrating and
throwing out billows of black smoke
With the aid of his crew-Bill
Latady and Sig Gutenko-he hur-
riedly picked out a suitable landing
spot in the center of a large, Gre
vassed ice field over which they
were flying.
At the same time, Capt. Lassiter
notified the main base by radio OF
his plight and position and request
ed pilot James Adams to fly mec-
hanic Jimmy Robertson to him.
The LIS was ready, and within
80 minutes Mr. Robertson had as
sembled and loaded the necessary
repair tools and emergency gear
sleeping bag, food, ETC., required
when going into the field.
The Beechcraft was easily located.
Mr.. Robertson soon discovered the
trouble was a stuck valve and with
in five hours the difficulty had been
fixed. Meanwhile, Pilot Adams re-
turned Mr.. Latady and Mr.. Gutenko
to the base in the LIS.
Weather Plays Tricks.
When the Beechcraft was ready
to return, however, our variable
weather in this area once again
began playing tricks at the wrong
time: the earlier ceiling and visibil-
ity unlimited at the main base
suddenly changed to ceiling zero.
Within two hours the weather
here had improved sufficiently to
allow the plane to land. But then
the men with the Beechcraft ra-
diced that their weather had dete-
riorated to such an extent as to
make a takeoff there impossible.
Capt. Lassiter and Mr.. Robertson
will be making good use of their
emergency equipment tonight. They
have pitched tent beside the
grounded plane and are prepared
to camp in the field until the
weather permits their return.
1t was for just such an eventuality
as this that carefully selected emer-
gency gear has always been carried
as part of each of our planes
equipment and by each individual
aboard on all flights, no matter how
short.
Mechanic Is Praised.
In the $40 hours Of flying COM
pleted so far under most strenuous
conditions in the three expedition
planes, this is the first time me-
chanical difficulty has been expert
enced. This speaks we'll for Aviation
Mechanic Robertson's maintenance
work. The proximity to the main
base of this forced landing was
indeed fortunate when considering
that at the height of our aviation
program, flights were made as far
as 1000 miles from this area.
1t is hoped that within the next
"a hours the weather at both ends
will permit the Beechcraft to re-
turn to base.
= Her fight may be the last of our
current stay in the Antarctic, for,
within the last few days, the bay ice
has been getting noticeably thinner.
Before long it will be impossible to
utilize this bay ice as flying field
and the only alternative would be
the long sloping glacier field with
its hidden and exposed crevasses.
Since a loading dock doesn't exist in
this part of the world and as We