Lost Plane Found in Ice

After three summers of searching and 97 years after it was abandoned, Australian researchers have unearthed a landmark of exploration—the first plane ever to fly to Antarctica. The plane was used by Australian explorer Douglas Mawson in the early 1900s as a sledlike vehicle, but the extreme cold caused its engine to give out and it was left behind and became buried in ice. The Mawson's Huts Foundation, which works to conserve the huts used by Mawson in his adventures, had searched for the plane for several years before discovering it on New Year’s Day. "The biggest news of the day is that we've found the air tractor, or at least parts of it!" team member Tony Stewart wrote in a blog post.