| Summary: | Russian Polar Plane Overdue At Alaska City: Oakland-Bound Craft, With 6 Men Aboard, Unreported For 12 Hours. Russian Polar Plane Overdue At Alaska City Oakland-Bound Craft, With 6 Men Aboard, Unreported for 12 Hours Whereabouts of the Russian transpolar plane was a mystery this afternoon as the hours grew during which no word had been received from six flyers, who are attempting a Moscow-to-Oalrtand,Calif., flight. At 3 o'clock the plane was two hours behind the expected arrival in Fairbanks, Alaska, where the plane was to stop for refueling. At the same time it had been twelve hours since any direct word had been received from the airmen. The U. S. Army Signal Corps office here, in the meantime, had been broadcasting regular weather reports without any acknowledgement. A. Vartanian, Soviet representative of the flight in Seattle, who had announced at 12:12 p. m. that Pilot Sigismund Levaneffsky and his five companions would land at Fairbanks within an hour, closeted himself with Signal Corps officers this afternoon and refused to be interviewed further. The last message intercepted here by the Signal Corps was at 3 a. m. (P. S. T.). Previously the plane had reported passing over the North Pole at 2:45 a. m. No alarm was felt here at the long silence of the six flyers this forenoon. Vartanian pointed out that there were similar periods of silence during the first two Russian transpolar flights. He said the present airmen probably were flying through a magnetic storm area in which radio messages neither could be received north transmitted successfully. The route of the flyers from Fairbanks to Oakland still was in doubt. Vartanian said that as arrangements now stand the plane will proceed down the southeastern coast of Alaska and oyer Washington and Oregon. Plane May Fly Inland "If bad weather is reported on this side of the Canadian Rockies the plane might go to Edmonton and proceed southward by an inland route," Vartanian, who supervised the sending of weather reports to the flyers, said. Vartanian said also he had considered chartering a plane in Vancouver, B. C, to fly to Edmonton should the flyers go there. According to radio messages from the plane to Moscow, intercepted at various points, the giant ship with its six passengers passed over the North Pole at 2:45 a. m. (P. S. T.) Shortly afterwards the Signal Corps here intercepted a message which said the flyers wert proceeding at an altitude of approximately 20,000 feet and were encountering temperatures of 35 degrees below zero. The message said: "Everything is all right." The plane is roaring down the 148th parallel en route from the Pole to Fairbanks. Exact Route Unknown Originally it had been announced that the plane would fly to New York. Sigismund Levaneffsky, the American-trained pilot who is the air hero of Russia, is at the controls of the Soviet ship. Nicola Kostenaieff, is copilot; Victor Levchenko, navigator; Galkovsky, radio operator, and Pobeshimoff and Godovikoffk, mechanics. Levchenko has flown to Fairbanks before, being there last year on a San Diego to Moscow hop. 16 Hours to North Pole The present transpolar flight, the third to be attempted, by Russian airmen, started in Moscow yesterday morning at 7:26 a. m., Pacific Standard Time. The plane had been in the air more than sixteen hours when it crossed the North Pole. The takeoff was accomplished with unusual bustle, according to the Associated Press. Levaneffsky, dressed in an ordinary suit, chatted with correspondents until a few minutes before departure.
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