The Short Flight to the Arctic of a Swedish Engineer Ends When the Balloon Carrying Three People Crashes on a Remote Island.
In 1897, three explorers decided to journey to the Arctic by hot air balloon, but they never reached their destination. Their disappearance became one of the great unsolved mysteries in the history of Arctic exploration, according to National Geographic.
Hundreds sought to reach the Arctic in the 19th century, by ship or sled. All efforts failed, resulting in dozens of fatalities. However, only three attempted to get there by hot air balloon, led by Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée. He believed that a hydrogen balloon could succeed where other methods had failed. Critics argued that there was no way to control temperature and flight direction, making failure inevitable. Undeterred, two years later, Andrée took off from Sweden with two other explorers to reach the polar region, but they vanished. It took many decades before the world learned of their fate.
The wreckage of Andrée’s balloon on the ice. (Photo: National Geographic).
Born in 1854 in the town of Gränna, Sweden, Andrée became a mechanical engineer with a strong passion for aviation. In 1876, at the age of 22, he drew attention at the Philadelphia Exhibition with his hot air balloon demonstrations, igniting a lifelong fascination. Andrée was born during a time of Arctic exploration. Efforts to reach the Arctic were short-lived, and no one had succeeded. In 1871, American explorer Charles Francis Hall reached the Arctic aboard the Polaris but failed. Undeterred by Hall’s failure, British naval officer George Nares set sail for the polar region in 1875 and also could not reach his destination. Nares’ journey led many to believe there was no way to reach the Arctic by ship.
Having developed an interest in hot air balloons in Philadelphia, Andrée made several flights over the Baltic Sea. These experiences paved the way for his presentation at a conference in London in 1895. There, he faced criticism when he proposed the idea of reaching the poles by hot air balloon. However, Andrée countered every objection. His balloon was over 9 meters tall and made from high-quality double-sided fabric with no seams to prevent gas leakage, ensuring it could stay aloft for several days. The vehicle carried sleeping quarters for the three-man team, three sledges, three boats, a tent, and essential supplies. Andrée attached a sail for steering and pulled ropes to control altitude. His studies on wind led him to believe that stable north winds would carry them over the Arctic to Alaska in a matter of days.
Despite being considered reckless by many, Andrée’s plan impressed King Oscar II of Sweden. Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, provided funding and was eager for his country to make a mark in Arctic exploration. Andrée’s plan attracted global attention. News was relayed via buoys and carrier pigeons. On July 11, 1897, after several delays, Andrée and his team—Nils Strindberg, an assistant professor of physics and photographer, and Knut Fraenkel, a civil engineer—took off from Danes Island in Spitsbergen in a hot air balloon named Örnen (The Eagle).
After quickly ascending above the crowd, disaster struck. A sudden cold air current or the impact of the ropes caused the balloon to drop straight into the water. Witnesses screamed as Andrée released ballast. The balloon ascended again and could be seen for about an hour before drifting away to the northeast. That was the last time the three men were seen alive.
More than a week after takeoff, a carrier pigeon from Andrée delivered news. Written on July 13, the note read: “82 degrees north. Good journey heading east, 10 degrees south. All is favorable. This is the third letter sent by pigeon.” However, no other letters were found.
Years passed before authorities discovered two buoys released on the launch day. One read: “We are now on the ice floe broken from all directions. The weather is wonderful in the most ironic way.” Many search teams were dispatched to find the three team members but found no traces. They had vanished.
More than three decades later, the mystery began to unravel. In August 1930, a group of Norwegian scientists studying glaciers aboard a seal-hunting ship took advantage of an unusually warm summer to land on White Island. While exploring the island, they unexpectedly discovered the remains of a boat protruding from the ice. Inside was a hook inscribed with “Andrée’s 1896 Polar Expedition.” The fate of Andrée’s flight had finally been revealed.
Upon further exploration, authorities found the bodies of Andrée, Strindberg, and Fraenkel, along with their diaries, logbooks, cameras, and film rolls. Their remains were transported to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, for cremation and burial. The diaries and photographs shed light on what happened to the team after they took off in July 1897. The Örnen hovered in the air for nearly three days before drifting to the northeast.
However, the journey faced troubles. Shifting winds pushed the balloon westward on July 12, 1897. Hydrogen gas leakage from the balloon caused it to float at a low altitude. Fog caused a thick layer of ice to form on the balloon’s surface, causing it to descend further. To maintain altitude, Andrée and his team jettisoned ballast and some equipment, but to no avail. The balloon bounced along the ground over distances of about 50 meters. On July 14, the team decided to jump from the vehicle and abandon the mission when they were 480 kilometers from the pole.
Developed photographs from Strindberg’s frozen film rolls show the wreck of the balloon and the campsite the men erected near the impact site. Just over a week after the balloon crash, the team sought to reach Franz Josef Land, an archipelago in Russia, where they had stored emergency supplies. After transferring the equipment to a drifting ice floe for several days, the floe began to drift westward.
The three continued to try to move to safety, but by mid-September that year, temperatures had dropped, and they had no choice but to stay put. They constructed a shelter from ice blocks, hunting seals and polar bears. By early October, the ice movement pushed them to White Island. On October 8, as bad weather approached, Andrée wrote in his journal for the last time. The cause of their deaths remains unclear. Experts believe the trio had enough supplies to survive the winter but were struck by illness.
