| Summary: | Polar Weather Delays Search: Mattern Eager To Hop--Spurred By News Faint Radio Signals Heard. POLAR WEATHER DELAYS SEARCH Mattern Eager to Hop— Spurred by News Faint Radio Signals Heard. FAIRBANKS, Alaska', Aug. 16. (/P)—Threatening weather over the arctic wastes caused Jimmy Mattern, famous flyer, to consider deferring until tomorrow his take-off in search of the lost soviet transpolar plane. Moscow advised Russian agents here that signals from the plane had been picked up yesterday afternoon, but that no position was ascertainable. Mattern, other flyers and the soviet agents were encouraged by the report to believe that Pilot Sigismund Levansffsky and his five companions were alive after having been forced down Friday. A. Vartanian, soviet representative, arrived here late today by airplane from Juneau to take charge of the hunt. He flew north from Seattle, where he had been in charge of flight headquarters. Mattern continued preparations to take off should weather become more favorable. From the Russian embassy at Washington, D. C, came the announcement radio stations at Moscow and Irkutsk, Siberia, had heard signals "of a weak and irregular transmitter" believed to be Levaneffsky's emergency set. Irkutsk, Siberia, picked up the signals at 3:33 a. m. (eastern standard time), the embassy said. The Moscow, station heard signals at 10:55 p. m. (eastern standard United States signal corps officers in Seattle immediately ordered all Alaska stations to listen for signals of a 55-meter frequency which the Moscow report said was Levaneffsky's frequency. Canadian stations, likewise, were on the alert.
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