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Introduction
In the words of the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen:
[T]he greatest factor in the success of an exploring expedition is the way in which every difficulty is foreseen and precautions taken for meeting or avoiding it. Victory awaits him who has everything in order - luck, people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time - this is called bad luck [. . .] [O]nly the most careful planning, sound judgment and infinite patience in working out minute details of equipment and of precaution can assure the success of an undertaking in the Arctic. These are the things that provide that invaluable 'margin of safety' which is necessary to overcome the perils of unexpected difficulties and delays (Amundsen 1927: 258, 268-269).
Amundsen has a reputation for identifying and expunging unnecessary risk from his expedition planning. It is therefore strange that he did not take these 'necessary precautions' before his final Arctic flight.
At four in the afternoon of 18 June 1928, the 55 year old Amundsen set off in a French flying-boat, a new prototype model known as Latham 47 (or Latham-Farman 47), together with a crew of five men. The aim was to participate in the rescue of the stranded survivors from the crashed airship, Italia. From Tromsø in northern Norway, Amundsen's aircraft flew out alone over the Barents Sea; it was thought that it would arrive at King's Bay (now Ny-Ålesund) on Spitsbergen (Svalbard), later that evening. However, the Latham never arrived. Only a few pieces of the wreckage were ever recovered, and the six men were never seen again. In the words of one modern assessment, 'in an uncharacteristic action for a man renowned for careful planning, [he] took off. It was Amundsen's last act - and a selfless one' (Officer and Page 2012: 159).
Normally fatal accidents are subject to detailed critical analysis, with explanations of how the loss of life could have been prevented. For perspective, six men died on Amundsen's Latham compared with five men on Captain Robert Falcon Scott's much-dissected Terra Nova Antarctic expedition of 1910-1913. We would contend that Amundsen's final flight merits similarly...