![]() ![]() Recognizing the emergency, Nobile ordered the engines stopped to arrest the uncontrolled descent. Approximately 53 h into the flight, at about 09:25 on the morning of 25 May, the ship began to lose altitude because of a jammed-possibly frozen-elevator control mechanism. ![]() During this return, they faced strong and persistent head winds. However, the winds were too high at that time to safely discharge a landing party onto the ice, so after commemorating the event the crew began their journey back to base. After some relative problem-free sailing, they reached the North Pole on 24 May. Nobile and his crew began the polar mission early in the morning on 23 May. The ship returned to base on 18 May after a trip that had taken approximately 60 h. They flew a 2500-mile flight through the uncharted area known then as Nicholas II Land (Severnaya Zemlya) and gathered significant scientific data from this region. On their second attempt on 15 May, weather conditions were markedly improved and the attempt was successful. The crew attempted its first trip to an unexplored region of the Arctic on 11 May, but had to return after only 8 h because of ice formation on the ship’s envelope and damage to the control cables as a result of the extreme environmental conditions. Nobile planned five flights exploring different areas of the Arctic, each originating from the base. The multiple-leg trip took several days, with delays due to poor weather and damage during flight that necessitated repair. They deployed from Milan on 15 April 1928, on their way to a forward operating base at Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen, in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. The plan was to later retrieve the scientific party using the Italia.Īfter securing necessary funding and overcoming various socio-political obstacles, Nobile completed construction of the Italia and the selection of its crew. Nobile then conceived of a slightly larger airship called the Italia, for which he planned both a flight to the North Pole and stationary time at the site, during which he would discharge a scientific party to perform Arctic research. They were the first to perform such a feat in an airship. In 1926, he flew the semi-rigid dirigible Norge-an airship he had designed and built-over the North Pole, together with Norwegian Roald Amundsen, American Lincoln Ellsworth and a supporting crew. General Umberto Nobile (1885–1978) was an aeronautical engineer and airship pilot who held a commission in the Italian Air Force. This supports the historical evidence that human fatigue contributed to the crash of the Italia. Applying Circadian Performance Simulation Software to the sleep–wake patterns described by Nobile in his memoirs, we found that the predicted performance for someone awake as long as he had been is extremely low. We argue that as a result of these three errors, which would not be expected from such an experienced commander, there was no longer enough static lift to maintain level flight when the ship went below the cloud layer. First, he ordered a release of lift gas when he should have restarted engines (an example of incorrect data synthesis, with deterioration of divergent thinking) second, he inappropriately ordered the ship above the cloud layer (a deficiency in the assessment of relative risks) and third, he remained above the cloud layer for a prolonged period of time (examples of attention to secondary problems, and calculation problems). Just prior to the crash, Nobile made three command errors, all of which are of types associated with inadequate sleep. Sleep deprivation impairs multiple aspects of cognitive functioning necessary for exploration missions. Nobile’s memoirs indicate that at the time of the crash he had been awake for at least 72 h. We present evidence that the crash may have been fatigue-related. The cause of the accident was never satisfactorily explained. The airship Italia, commanded by General Umberto Nobile, crashed during its return flight from the North Pole in 1928. ![]()
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