( CNN ) -- Norway 's navy announced on Monday that it will help search for the missing plane of 20th century explorer Roald Amundsen , more than 80 years after his death . Roald Amundsen led the first successful expedition to the South Pole from 1910 to 1912 . The search -- scheduled for later this year -- will focus on a 40 square-mile ( 104 square-kilometer ) area of the Arctic Ocean where researchers believe Amundsen 's plane crashed in 1928 . `` If there is something down there , we will find it , '' said senior Commander Frode Loeseth told CNN . Loeseth said they will be concentrating on finding the plane 's wreckage , and do not expect to find any remains . Amundsen , who is a national hero in Norway , led the first successful expedition to the South Pole from 1910 to 1912 . He is also credited with being the first person to reach both the North and South Poles . He went missing in June 1928 at the age of 55 while flying to the North Pole for a rescue operation . The location of his disappearance `` is one of the remaining unsolved mysteries in our time , '' a press release from the Norwegian Navy said . Loeseth said the navy will participate in the search along with the Norwegian Aviation Museum ; Kongsberg Maritime , a Norwegian maritime technology company ; and Context TV , a German TV production company that will document the operation . The search is scheduled to begin the last week of August . There have been several attempts to find the location of Amundsen 's crash , most recently in 2004 . But this time Norway 's navy will be able to scour the depths of the Arctic Ocean with a submarine , named after a character in Norse mythology . `` We have one special tool -- Hugin -- that is a state-of-the-art submarine , unmanned , and can search for 18 hours , '' the commander said . Hugin is the mythological raven that traveled around Earth and informed the Norse god , Odin , of what happened that day . Loeseth said the navy has had the unmanned submarine for some time , but the one that will be used in the search is the Hugin 1000 , a `` newly modified and upgraded '' model . Loeseth would not say how much the operation was expected to cost , or which organization was funding the bulk of the search . He stressed that the partners have an agreement and a budget , and Norwegian taxpayers will not be paying for any part of the search . He said Amundsen 's relatives support the project . He noted that it has been five years since the last search for Amundsen 's wreckage because `` it takes time to raise funding for such projects . ''
Unmanned submarine to be used in search for Roald Amundsen 's plane . Amundsen 's plane crashed in later this year while he was on a rescue mission to South Pole . Roald Amundsen 's first to reach North Pole ; credited with being first to both poles . Search due to begin 1928 .