This episode that gripped public interest in the summer of 1928, it began shortly after the Italia, captained by General Nobile, set off from Spitzbergen for the North Pole on 23 May 1928. On 24 May the Italia cruised over the North Pole and dropped an Italian flag and cross. On 25 May the airship was driven down by weight of ice after riding a gale. The airship subsequently came to ground, the cabin being torn off. General Nobile and eight members of the crew were marooned on the ice. Meanwhile a strong wind lifted the Italia off the ice with seven men onboard and drifted in the wind eastward. Meanwhile General Nobile and his eight companions managed to maintain somewhat unreliable wireless communication with the wireless station on Mossel Bay and the support ship 'Citta di Milano'. The Soviet Government, Captain Amundsen and others set out to relieve the stranded survivors. Major Maddelane, in an aircraft, managed to locate General Nobile and drop supplies. Eventually Nobile was rescued by the Swedish Airman Captain Lundborg. A second attempt to rescue other members of the Italia's crew met with failure when Lundborg's aircraft crashed on the edge of the ice-floe. The crew members were finally saved by the Soviet icebreaker Krassin.