PLANE LIFTED BODILY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 620, 23 March 1929, Page 9

PLANE LIFTED BODILY

WIND’S TERRIFIC FORCE BYRD’S PARTY ON THE ICE (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) BY RUSSELL, OWEN Copyrighted, 1928, by the “New York Times’’ company and the St. Louis “PostDispatch.” All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wireless to the “New York Times.” Received 9.5 a.m. BAY OF WHALES, Thursday. . Relating the story of the wrecked Fokker plane, which was forced down in the Rockefjeller Mountains, 128 miles from Commander Byrd’s base, Harold June, after describing the fury of the wind said: “It had done all it could do to us when we turned in for the night. Next, morning the wind dropped and we saw our plane half a mile away. The snow blocks where she had been anchored were untouched. The craft had been lifted straight up, and the blocks of snow which had been piled on the skis of the plane were strewn for a quarter of a mile. “Despite the dangerous nature of the icy surface Bert Balchen crawled back with a knife and a ski stick to hold him from being blown away. He was a long time returning. When he did he exclaimed, "She’s a wreck.’ “In the afternoon we all were able to go as the wind was only 40 miles an hour. The plane lay 50ft from where she had first hit. All of us agreed with Balchen that she was certainly wrecked.”