Oskar Omdal (October 11, 1895 – December 23, 1927) was a lieutenant and pilot in the

Royal Norwegian Navy The Royal Norwegian Navy ( no, Sjøforsvaret, , Sea defence) is the branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces responsible for naval operations of Norway. , the Royal Norwegian Navy consists of approximately 3,700 personnel (9,450 in mobilized state, ...

Biography

He was born at

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporati ...

Vest-Agder Vest-Agder (; "West Agder") was one of 18 counties (''fylker'') in Norway up until 1 January 2020, when it was merged with Aust-Agder to form Agder county. In 2016, there were 182,701 inhabitants, around 3.5% of the total population of Norway. I ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. He attended the Technical School at

Porsgrunn is a city and municipality in Telemark in the county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Grenland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Porsgrunn. The municipality of Porsgrunn w ...

. He graduated from the Norwegian Naval Flight School (''Marinens Flygeskole'') at Horten in 1919. He was promoted to lieutenant in the Royal Norwegian Navy during 1922. In 1923 with

Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen beg ...

he tried to fly from

Wainwright, Alaska Wainwright (; ''Ulġuniq'' in Iñupiaq), also known as Ulguniq or Kuuk, is a city in North Slope Borough, Alaska, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 556, making it the third largest city in the North Slope Borough, up from ...

to Spitsbergen across the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

, but their aircraft was damaged and they abandoned the journey. In 1925, Omdal was a mechanic on

Lincoln Ellsworth Lincoln Ellsworth (May 12, 1880 – May 26, 1951) was a polar explorer from the United States and a major benefactor of the American Museum of Natural History. Biography Lincoln Ellsworth was born on May 12, 1880, to James Ellsworth and Eva F ...

and Roald Amundsen's attempted flight to the

Disappearance

Omdal took off on December 23, 1927 from Curtiss Field on Long Island, New York with

Frances Wilson Grayson Frances Wilson Grayson (c. 1892 – c. December 23, 1927) was an American woman who disappeared flying to Newfoundland just before her attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean. She was a niece of President Woodrow Wilson.Brice Goldsborough Brice Herbert Goldsborough (March 20, 1889 – December 23, 1927) was an American aviation instrument designer at Sperry Gyroscope and later founded the Pioneer Instrument Company. He flew aboard the '' Spirit of St. Louis'' with Charles Lind ...

and engineer Frank Koehler headed for

Harbor Grace Harbour Grace is a town in Conception Bay on the Avalon Peninsula in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. With roots dating back to the 16th century, it is one of the oldest towns in North America. It is located about northwest ...

in Newfoundland. This flight was in preparation for Grayson's planned crossing of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

to set the record for the first woman to cross. The twin-engine air-craft ''Dawn'', an amphibious

Sikorsky S-36 The Sikorsky S-36 was an eight-seat amphibian sesquiplane designed and built by the Sikorsky Manufacturing Company in the late 1920s. The aircraft was ordered by Pan American Airways, the start of a long association with Sikorsky flying boats.Be ...

, and its crew never arrived. No trace of the plane or the four aviators was found.

Legacy

Oscar Omdal street in Stavanger and Oscar Omdal terrace in the Hamresanden district of

are both named after him. In 1928, the Ontario Surveyor General named a number of lakes in the northwest of the province to honour aviators who had perished during 1927, mainly in attempting oceanic flights. p 14. These include Goldsborough Lake (), Grayson Lake () and Omdahl Lake () which are in close proximity to each other in the

Wabakimi Provincial Park Wabakimi Provincial Park is a wilderness park located to the northwest of Lake Nipigon and northwest of Armstrong Station in the province of Ontario, Canada. The park contains a vast and interconnected network of more than 2,000 kilometres of l ...

References

Other sources

*Arlov, Thor B. (2003) ''Svalbards historie'' (Trondheim: Akademisk Forlag) *Hafsten, Bjørn/Arheim, Tor (2003) ''Marinens Flygevåpen 1912 – 1944'' (Tankestreken forlag) 1895 births 1920s missing person cases 1927 deaths Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in Canada Missing aviators Missing person cases in Canada Norwegian aviators Norwegian polar explorers People from Kristiansand People lost at sea Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service personnel Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1927 {{Norway-mil-bio-stub

Biography

Disappearance

Legacy

See also

References

Other sources