IEEE Spectrum July 20, 2020
On 25 May 1928, the airship “Dirigible Italia” after overflying the North Pole, shipwrecked on the ice pack about 400 km northeast of Svalbard Islands. Survivors were unsuccessful in sending SOS messages using a portable high frequency (HF) radio transmitter. Only after 9 days of repeated radio‐distress transmissions, a Russian radio amateur about 1,900 km away was able to receive the messages. An international team of researchers (Italy, UK) conducted a retrospective analysis of the ionospheric and geomagnetic conditions of that epoch to explain the HF radio communications problems encountered by the survivors. They concluded that the HF transmission difficulties were associated with the “radio silent” or “dead zones” associated with F‐region propagation. These may have been exacerbated by solar and geomagnetically disturbed conditions of the days immediately following the airship wreck…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Image: Irene Schettino Nobile At 10:35 UT of 25 May 1928, the “Dirigible Italia” wrecked on the sea ice 400 km northeast of NyAlesund, Norway, its point of origin. Nine survivors took cover under a red tent, lending the incident its historical name.