Summary: | Wilkins Halts Arctic Search For Time Being: Explorer Starts Long Flight To New York; Only 2 Planes Remain To Continue Hunt. WILKINS HALTS ARCTIC SEARCH FOR TIME BEING Explorer Starts Long Flight To New York; Only 2 Planes Remain to Continue Hunt BARROW, Alaska, Sept. 22.—(A. P.)—Sir Hubert Wilkins, famed explorer, flew southward today on a 1,150-mile flight over the northwest' territories from Aklavik to Fort Smith, giving up at least temporarily his search for the lost Russian transpolar flyers. The big Russian-owned boat, which arrived at Aklavik yesterday after being "grounded" since Sunday afternoon on the Mackenzie River delta, was to refuel at For Smith before proceeding on the other long overland flights to New York. With but two planes, both Russian, remaining on this side of the North Pole engaged in the search for the lost Sigismund Levaneffsky and his five companions, one of them was still away from the base here and the other, piloted by Basil Zadkoff, was undergoing repairs. PLANE OVER ARCTIC Pilot Alexsei Gratciansky was over the Arctic in a planned 2,000-mile flight. Before taking off yesterday, he said he planned a flight to the eightieth parallel out over the ice-pack. Wilkins had made five long-distance flights over the ice. Information at Edmonton was that Wilkins would obtain a plane more suitable for northern winter flying at New York, and return north to continue the search. A. Vartanian, Soviet flight representative now in the north, has said it would be "continued indefinitely."
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