Background
LEVANEVSKIY, Sigizmund was born in 1902 in Saint St. Petersburg. Son of a worker
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Sigizmund Aleksandrovich LEVANEVSKIY
Edit ProfileEducation
1923-1925 studied at Sebastopol School of Naval Pilots.
Career
From 1916 laborer; 1917 joined Red Guard. 1918 worked for food squad in Vyatka Province. 1919 volunteered for Red Army and served on Eastern Front.
1919-1923 company, then battalion commander, assistant chief of staff of a brig, assistant commander, Stavropol’ Territorial Regiment 1925-1929 instructor at military school. 1929-1931 senior instructor, then commandant, Nikolaycv School of Social for Promotion of the Soviet Defense, Aviation and Chemical Indiana.
From 1931 director of studies, Poltava School of this Social. 1933 joined Main North Sea Passage Board. Flew to Nome, Alaska, to deliver the American pilot Mattem, who had crashed in the Anadyr distribution
February 1934 flew to United States of America to organice Alaskan rescue operation for members of icebreaker “Chelyuskin” expedition. Hence flew in very bad conditions via Fairbanks, Nome, Wellen to Vancarem. At 7th Congress of Soviets elected member, Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Central Executive Committee.Sept 1936 flew 19,000 km from Los Angeles to Moscow.
After returning from America continued to work for polar aviation. Early 1937 prepared for non-stop Moscow-United States flight over North Pole. 12 August 1937 captained 4-engine North-209 plane which set of from Moscow for America.
The flight encountered exceptionally bad weather. Over the Barents Sea the plane ran into continuous cloud, which forced it to fly at an altitude of over 6,000 meters. Approaching the North Pole strong winds cut the plane’s ground speed to just over 160 km/hour
13 August 1937 the plane passed over the North Pole and headed for Alaska. This marked the start of the most difficult navigational stage of the flight - 2,187 km from the North Pole to the Alaskan coast. Around 2 a.m. Levanevskiy radioed that one of his engines was out of action as a result of a faulty oil lead.
After this steady radio contact with the plane was lost. The few scraps of radio messages subsequently received indicate that Levanevskiy continued for a while on three engines. Then the situation worsened and the plane was forced to descend into the cloud, resulting in icing-up of the plane’s surfaces and an attempted forced landing on the ice.
Rescue efforts were immediately made by bothSov and American polar pilots, but no trace of Levanevskiy or the plane was foundation
Membership
Communist Party member from 1934.
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Born
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Died
1937 (aged 34) -
Nationality
Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics