Twin Otter On Mission Of Mercy
Delayed five days
because of snow and high winds, a Twin Otter landed at the South
Pole Saturday for an emergency rescue of a critically ill
researcher.
The aircraft, with four aboard, left a British research station
at Rothera Point near the Antarctic coastline south of Chile at
8:48 a.m. Eastern time Saturday. It landed eight and a half hours
later at the National Science Foundation's Amundsen-Scott South
Pole Station, 1,346 miles away.
The stricken worker is an employee of Raytheon Polar Services,
based in Centennial (CO). That's the company that operates the
polar station for the science foundation, Raytheon officials said.
Neither the NSF nor Raytheon would describe the nature of the man's
illness, except to say that it is not contagious and that no other
employees at the station are at risk.
Fifty-eight men and women are spending the sunless winter at the
Pole conducting scientific research and construction work. With
winter highs that rarely top -70 Fahrenheit, winds sometimes
gusting to 100 mph or more and darkness a permanent feature until
late September, scheduled flights are suspended from late February
until late October or November.
In preparation for the flight, two Twin Otter aircraft, operated
by Kenn Borek Air Ltd. of Alberta, Canada, were dispatched to Punta
Arenas, Chile, last week.
Risky Business
Spokesmen for Raytheon
and NSF called the flight risky. Weather conditions can change
might fast around the South Pole in September as spring brings the
first wisps of warmer air. The sun will rise briefly over the Pole
on Tuesday, the spring equinox, for the first time in months.
It's the third time in four years there's been an emergency
rescue at the remote research station.
April 2001: The station's doctor, Ronald Shemenski, then 59, was
evacuated after he was diagnosed by satellite as having gallstones
and a life-threatening case of pancreatitis. When that plane landed
at the Pole, the windchill factor was minus 119 degrees Fahrenheit.
Research station personnel warmed the plane with heaters all night
(while the pilots caught up on sleep) to boost the odds that its
engines would start for the next morning's departure.
October 1999: An Air National Guard crew rescued South Pole
physician Jerri Nielson, who had diagnosed herself as having breast
cancer. That rescue involved a much larger plane -- an LC-130
Hercules transport specially equipped with ski landing gear --
which kept its engines running for the 22 minutes it spent at the
Pole picking up Nielson and dropping off a replacement doctor.