Planes are being sent out in a dangerous bid to rescue one, possibly two, employees from the Amundsen-Scott research station, who require medical treatment unavailable at the station. This type of rescue mission has only been done twice in the last 60 years, the first in 2001, because we are in the middle of the Antarctic winter.
Kelly Falkner, director of polar programmes for the National Science Foundation, said:
“It’s a very serious decision that we take to move in this direction.”
The cold, the darkness and the weather make flights during this season exceedingly rare and close to impossible.
In 1999 a doctor staying on the station diagnosed and treated herself with a biopsy and chemotherapy when she found a cancerous lump in her breast for almost six months before a rescue plane could arrive.
The distress call went to the US Air Force initially, but as they started to gather together C-130 Hercules planes for the rescue they realised that the temperatures at the pole were too cold for these planes.
Canadian polar service firm Kenn Borek’s Twin Otters were drafted in. The small Twin Otters can fly at temperatures as low as -75, have simpler systems and require less fuel. Two Twin Otters are now headed south carrying a pilot, co-pilot, engineer and a medic.
One plane will remain at the British research station Rothera on Adelaide Island to act as search and rescue if the main plane goes down. The other will journey on to the station.
All being well they may be able to get there for the 19th June depending on whether the pilots can find a suitable window of opportunity to fly in.