Snow and Wind Block South Pole Rescue Attempt

Risky rescue attempt
This saga of pole rescues in fascinating. As I understand it, even if the weather conditions are good enough to see the ground to land, the flight crew has only three minutes to take the patient on board and take off before the fuel becomes gelid.

Amazing courage to try to achieve such rescues.

---BumbleBeeBoogie

Plane Takes off for Rescue of Ill South Pole Staffer
Sep 20, 2003
After Days of Delays, Plane Takes off for Rescue of Ill South Pole Staffer
By Robert Weller
Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) - After days of delays, a rescue flight headed to the South Pole on Saturday to pick up an ailing worker at the research station there. Snow and wind had delayed the rescue attempt for five days while the rescuers awaited at British Rothera Air Station on Antarctica, 1,346 miles from the pole.

"It left at 6:48 a.m. Mountain time with estimated time of arrival 4:48 p.m.," said Valerie Carroll, spokeswoman for Raytheon Polar Services, the Centennial, Colo.-based company that manages the polar station.

"The plan is for a 10-hour flight, 10 hours of rest, then 10 hours back. But that is flexible," said Carroll. The employee will then be flown to the southern tip of Chile for the return flight to the United States.

The weather was partly cloudy at Rothera with winds of 24 mph and visibility at 12 miles. At the polar station, the temperature was 66 degrees below zero with winds of 18 mph and visibility of one mile. The forecast was for overcast skies.

The ill employee, whose name is being withheld at his request, is ambulatory but may need surgery. Raytheon has declined to confirm reports he is suffering from a bladder infection.

The rescue plane is a Twin Otter, a rugged twin-engine plane designed for rough weather, and capable of landing on small landing strips.

It is the third such rescue in four years, and is occurring in total darkness. The sun doesn't come up at the South Pole until Tuesday when the southern hemisphere spring arrives.
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On the Net:
Amundsen-Scott: http://www.southpolestation.com

This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGABJRMRTKD.html

Rescue plane & patient landed in Chile
Sep 22, 2003
Rescue Plane With Ailing Worker From South Pole Research Station Arrives in Chile
By Guido Arce
The Associated Press

PUNTA ARENAS, Chile (AP) - An airplane carrying an ailing American worker from a South Pole research station landed in this southernmost Chilean city late Sunday on an emergency rescue flight.
Reporters saw the thin, bearded man step off the plane and walk toward waiting officials after the turboprop Twin Otter landed in the military section of the the Punta Arenas airport.

He smiled broadly, accompanied by two women, one of them holding a camera and taking pictures. Airport officials said they believed the other woman was his wife, but that could not be confirmed.

The plane landed at 10:30 p.m. EDT Sunday after stopping at a Britain's Rothera base on the coast of Antarctica, said Elaine Hood of Raytheon Polar Services, the company that manages the U.S. base.

Reporters were not allowed near the landing area, but officials said the rescued worker was heading to a hotel in Punta Arenas and a visit to a local hospital was scheduled for Monday morning.

The airport officials said the rescued man told them there was no need to take him to a hospital immediately.

The plane took off from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station about 5 a.m. EDT and landed Sunday afternoon at the Rothera base, some 1,350 miles away, said Valerie Carroll of Raytheon Polar Services.

The Denver-based company runs the station for the National Science Foundation.

The ill employee was to be flown to the United States from Chile on a charter flight. The employee, whose name is being withheld at his request, can walk but may need surgery. Raytheon has declined to confirm reports he is suffering from a bladder infection.

The patient's destination in the United States will not be disclosed to protect his identify, said Peter West of the National Science Foundation.

The rescue flight had been delayed for days because of wind and snow during the southern hemisphere's spring season. The weather makes the round trip to the pole risky, but the 900-mile, five-hour flight across open ocean to Punta Arenas can also be treacherous, said Steve Penikeet, manager of Alberta, Canada-based Kenn Borek Air, which operates the planes used in the rescue.

"The Drake Passage between Chile and Antarctica has probably the worst weather in the world," Penikeet said.

It was the third such rescue in four years, and occurred in darkness. The sun doesn't come up at the South Pole until Tuesday.
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On the Net:
Amundsen-Scott: http://www.southpolestation.com
Kenn Borek Air: http://www.borekair.com

This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAX3BG1WKD.html