Search for Amundsen

Hopes to find plane wreckage of Norwegian explorer's last mission

A search is underway to locate the lost plane wreckage of Roald Amundsen, one of Norway’s greatest explorers. The Latham 47 sea plane went missing in June 1928, en route to the Arctic island of Spitsbergen. Ironically, the flight was part of a rescue mission to come to the aid of rival, Italian Umberto Nobile. Nobile’s air ship had crashed, leaving the team stranded in freezing cold waters.

Veteran expedition explorer, Ron McCallum, is leading the team, accompanied by Nicolay Jacobsen, a great nephew of Amundsen. Using an underwater robot called Hugin 1000, the team will use sonar equipment to hopefully find the plane wreck. The robot makes high-resolution maps of the sea floor. Another piece of underwater equipment, named Scorpion 21, has a HDTV camera. This robot uses power from the vessel, allowing it to be in the ocean for longer periods of time.

Two ships will cover 45 square miles of ocean, with a German television company recording the search for a documentary on the late explorer, the first to lead an expedition to the South Pole.  With the left wing of the Latham 47 being found during the first rescue operation in 1928 and a piece of the fuel tank identified months later, there is still plenty to find. Amundsen’s courageous mission could soon be brought to the surface.