Oskar Omdal

Oskar Omdal (October 11, 1895 – December 23, 1927) was a lieutenant and pilot in the Royal Norwegian Navy.

Biography
He was born in Kristiansand, in Vest-Agder, Norway in 1895. He graduated from the Norwegian Naval Flight School (Marinens Flygeskole) in Horten in 1919 and was promoted to lieutenant in 1922. In 1923 with Roald Amundsen he tried to fly from Wainwright, Alaska to Spitsbergen across the North Pole. Amundsen and Omdal's aircraft was damaged and they abandoned the journey. Omdal took off on December 23, 1927 from Curtiss Field in New York with Frances Wilson Grayson, Brice Goldsborough and Frank Koehler headed for Harbor Grace in Newfoundland to prepare for Grayson's crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to set the record for the first woman to cross. Dawn, an amphibious Sikorsky S-36, and its crew were never found.

Legacy
Oscar Omdal street in Stavanger and Oscar Omdal terrace in the Hamresanden district of Kristiansand are both named after him.

In 1928, the Ontario Surveyor General named a number of lakes in the northwest of the province to honour aviators who had perished during 1927, mainly in attempting oceanic flights. These include Goldsborough Lake (50.7°N, -89.34°W), Grayson Lake (50.88°N, -89.43°W) and Omdahl [sic] Lake (50.81°N, -89.49°W) which are in close proximity to each other in the Wabakimi Provincial Park.

Other sources

 * Arlov, Thor B. (2003) Svalbards historie (Trondheim: Akademisk Forlag) ISBN 82-519-1851-0
 * Hafsten, Bjørn/Arheim, Tor (2003) Marinens Flygevåpen 1912 – 1944 (Tankestreken forlag) ISBN 82-993535-1-3