AT FRANZ JOSEF LAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 356, 17 May 1928, Page 13

AT FRANZ JOSEF LAND

NOBILE ARRIVES FOG COMPELS LOW FLYING (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian Press Association) Reed. Noon. LONDON, Wednesday. A message has been received from Vadso, to the effect that General Nobile has sent a wireless message that he has reached Franz Josef Land. Fog compels low flying. In an earlier wireless message. General Nobile said: ‘‘We have been flying steadily 500 feet beneath a thick bank of fog extending for many miles overhead. We passed North Cape, Svalbard, and were launched on the great Polar wilderness. Fairly strong head-winds are causing the Italia to pitch slightly as she heads toward the Franz Josef archipelago. “It was glorious, before we encountered the fog, speeding aloft in the wonderful azure of this northernmost sky, especially after the alarms of the last two days, when the Italia was nearly overwhelmed and crushed in one of the worst snowstorms in my experience. Our anxious experience proved the axiom that the airship is always safer aloft than on land.” "Onr object is to penetrate more deeply the unexplored zone between Svalbard and Franz Josef Land. The visibility now is ten miles. A head wind has curtailed our speed to 30 miles an hour. The fog has deposited abundant ice on the Italia’s envelope, otherwise all is well. “We have seen no trace of land yet. The ice-pack seems to be more compact and more favourable for landing than at North Cape.”