The photo reveals the tragedy of Arctic exploration by hot air balloon

A Swedish engineer's brief flight to the North Pole ended when the hot air balloon carrying three people crashed on a remote island .

In 1897, three explorers decided to reach the North Pole 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 of people sought to reach the North Pole in the 19th century, by ship or cart. All efforts failed and dozens of people died. But only three people managed to get there by hot air balloon, led by Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée . According to him, hydrogen balloons can achieve success compared to other methods. Andree's critics argue that there is no way to control the temperature and direction of flight, so failure is inevitable. Undeterred, two years later, Andrée took off from Sweden with two other explorers to reach the pole, but they disappeared. Decades passed before the world knew their fate.

The body of Andrée's hot air balloon falls on the ice. (Photo: National Geographic).

Born in 1854 in the Swedish town of Gränna, Andrée became a mechanical engineer with a strong passion for aviation. In 1876, at age 22, he made a splash at the Philadelphia Fair with his hot air balloon displays, planting the seeds of a lifelong passion. Andrée was born during the period of Arctic exploration. Attempts to reach the North Pole have been short-lived and none have succeeded. In 1871, American explorer Charles Francis Hall reached the North Pole on the ship Polaris but failed. Undeterred by Hall's defeat, British naval officer George Nares set sail to the poles in 1875 and could not reach his destination. Nare's journey led many to believe that there was no way to sail to the North Pole.

Becoming interested in hot air ballooning in Philadelphia, Andrée flew over the Baltic Sea several times. These experiences paved the way for his speech at a conference in London in 1895. There, he received much criticism when he proposed the idea of ​​reaching the poles by hot air balloon. However, Andrée responded to all objections. His hot air balloon is more than 9 meters high and is made from high-quality double-sided fabric with no seams to prevent air leakage and ensure it can stay in the air for many days. The vehicle carries bedding for a team of 3, 3 trailers, 3 boats, tents and important supplies. Andrée attached the sail to steer and dragged ropes to control altitude. His study of the winds led him to believe that a steady north wind would carry them over the North Pole to Alaska in a few days.

Although considered reckless by many, Andrée's plan still impressed King Oscar II of Sweden. Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, provided the funding and excitement as his country was about to make its mark in Arctic exploration. Andrée's plan attracted worldwide attention. News is updated via buoys and homing pigeons. On July 11, 1897, after many delays, Andrée and his teammates Nils Strindberg, assistant professor of physics and photographer, and Knut Fraenkel, civil engineer, took off from Danes Island in Spitsbergen in a balloon. The balloon was named Örnen (Eagle).

After quickly flying above the crowd, the incident occurred. A sudden blast of cold air or the influence of a rope causes the balloon to fall straight into the water. Onlookers screamed as Andrée released the ballast. The balloon rose high and was visible for about an hour, then gradually flew away to the northeast. That was the last time the three men were seen alive.

More than a week after takeoff, one of Andrée's homing pigeons brought news. Written on July 13 of that year, the note read "82 degrees north latitude. Good journey east, 10 degrees south. All goes well. This is the third letter sent by pigeon." However, no other letters were found.

Years passed before authorities found the two buoys released on launch day. One had the message: "We are now on ice that is breaking up in every direction. Great weather in the funniest way." Many expedition teams were sent to find the three members but did not find any traces. They have gone missing.

More than 3 decades later, the mystery is gradually revealed. In August 1930, a group of Norwegian scientists studied glaciers on a seal hunting ship. They took advantage of the unusually warm summer to land on White Island. While exploring the island, they suddenly found traces of a boat protruding from the ice. Inside is a fishing hook with the words "Andrée's 1896 polar expedition". The fate of Andrée's flight was finally revealed.

After further exploration, authorities found the bodies of Andrée, Strindberg and Fraenkel along with their diaries, travel books, cameras and film rolls. Their bodies were transported to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, for cremation and burial. Diaries and photographs help shed light on what happened to the team after takeoff in July 1897. Örnen hung in the air for nearly 3 days and drifted in a northeast direction.

However, the journey encountered trouble. A change in wind direction pushed the balloon west on July 12, 1897. Hydrogen gas leaked from the balloon, causing it to float at a low altitude. Fog causes a thick layer of ice to form on the surface of the balloon, causing it to fly lower. To continue floating, Andrée and his teammates threw away ballast and some equipment but were unsuccessful. The hot air balloon bounces on the ground in intervals of about 50 m. On July 14, the whole team decided to jump out of the vehicle and abandon the mission while 480 km away from the pole.

A photo developed from Strindberg's frozen film shows the wreckage of the balloon falling to the ground and the tent the men built near the crash site . Just over a week after the balloon crash, the team managed to reach Franz Josef Land, an archipelago in Russia where they had hidden emergency supplies. After they moved the equipment onto the ice block that had been drifting for several days, the ice block began drifting westward.

The three people continued to try to move to safety, but in mid-September of that year, the temperature gradually dropped, and they had no choice but to stay where they were. They built shelters from ice blocks and hunted seals and polar bears. In early October, shifting ice pushed them to White Island. On October 8, as bad weather approached, Andrée wrote in his diary for the last time. The cause of their death is still unclear. Experts say the trio had enough supplies to survive the winter but were hit by disease.