Saturday, October 27, 2018

In the Antarctic in 1961, a 3 day blizzard stuck, winds over 100 mph, and one plane disappeared... well, not exactly, it was blown 15 miles along the ice with the brakes on and found days later and miles away


that is it on the top of the photo... the tires and rims were worn away to the skis.

This blizzard continued unabated for two days, and on the third day was still gusting at over 100 knots. The Dakota was at the airfield at Rumdoodle when the blizzard struck.

When the blizzard subsided sufficiently to venture outdoors, the Dakota had broken its tie-downs and had disappeared. A few days later, when the weather had cleared, Graham Currie, riding a Velocette on the sea ice west of Mawson, noticed something red, high up on the glacier top. Closer inspection confirmed that it was the dayglow red tail of the Dakota.

The plane had been blown by the blizzard about 15 miles down slope at sufficient speed, with brakes engaged, to wear the tires and wheel rims flush with the skis. It came to rest after the undercarriage dropped into a crevasse on the cliff top about 400′ above the sea ice.

https://thevintagent.com/2017/06/13/velocettes-in-antarctica/

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