PLANE SEARCH IN ANTARCTIC

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28262, 27 April 1957, Page 10

PLANE SEARCH IN ANTARCTIC

Fruitless Attempt To Find Island The sighting of islands, later proved to be illusory, is frequently reported in the Antarctic and several instances have occurred in the Dominion’s Ros* P®P ebdency. The New Zealand expedition at Scott Base has already made one fruitless search for an island reputed to lie 60 miles east of Ross Island, on which the base is built.

Observers aboard a ship had claimed to have seen the island and it was said that it had even been registered on a ship radarscope. A search was made by the expedition’s Beaver plane, piloted by Flying Officer W. J. Cranfield. In the aircraft as passengers were Sir Edmund Hillarv and Messrs J. Rates and P Mulgrew.

After an hour’s flight, nothing had been sighted. When the aircraft was about 120 miles from # r> e Crozier, at the north-east tin of Ross Island, ice pinnacles could be seen inland. The party flew 25 miles in from the ice edge, where it was possible to see at least 60 miles m every direction, but no island was sighted. The party’s explanation of the “sighting” is that the i6e cliffs of a huge ice trough, several hundred feet high and running for miles as far as the eye could see in either direction from where the plane was flying, could have registered on a radar screen. The visual sighting could have been a mirage, which is common in the area.