Roald Amundsen

Few days prior to the accident, the Italian Airship named 'Italia' and piloted by the Italian General Umberto Nobile crashed on the ice in Arctica with 15 people on board. The Norwegian Scientist Roald Amundsen obtained help from the French government to attempt a SAR mission. On 16 of June, the seaplane departed Caudebec-en-Caux, north of France, with a crew of four on board, bound to Bergen and Tromsø where Roald Amundsen boarded with his pilot Leif Dietrichson. The aircraft departed Tromsø at 1600LT. About three hours later, the crew sent his last message, confirming that all was OK on board. While cruising off the Norwegian coasts, half a way from Tromsø to Longyearbyen, in the Svalbard archipelago, the aircraft disappeared while the communication was cut. SAR mission was initiated but no trace of the aircraft nor the crew was found. On 13AUG1928, a lateral stabilization float was found and all SAR operations were officially abandoned by the Norwegian Authorities in September 1928. On 13OCT1928, a fuel tank was found on a beach in Norway while a second tank was found few days later. This would be the only part of the aircraft ever found. In 2003, a Norwegian commission announced the aircraft probably crashed off Bear Island, in the Barents Sea.
Crew:
René Guilbaud, pilot,
Emile Valette, radio,
Lieutenant de Vaisseau Albert Cavelier de Cuverville,
Gilbert Brazy, mechanic.
Passengers:
Roald Amundsen,
Leif Dietrichson, pilot.

The pilot Oskar Omdal was performing a local test flight on this aircraft named 'Elisabeth'. Shortly after takeoff from Wainwright, the aircraft stalled and crashed in a lagoon. While the pilot was uninjured, the aircraft was damaged beyond repair as a ski was torn off and went through the engine. The aircraft, owned by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, was performing some tests before an expedition to the Spitzberg archipelago.