An airplane left a British base in Antarctica on Tuesday for the 1,500-mile trip to evacuate a sick worker from a remote US science station.
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“The crew will then assess weather conditions at both the Pole and the British Antarctic Survey’s Rothera Station before flying back to Rothera”, the statement goes on. The patient is employed by Lockheed Martin’s Antarctic Support Contract, officials said. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
His unit evacuated Dr Jerri Nielsen, who diagnosed and treated herself for breast cancer at the station in 1999.
“They are balancing the health and safety of the flight crew and the health and safety of the patient”, West said.
Deep winter in the Antarctic brings bitterly cold temperatures and howling winds, making any flight there perilous from February to October.
A daring medical evacuation is now underway at the southernmost place on earth, according to the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Now that the Twin Otter has arrived at the South Pole, the crew will rest there for 10 hours and refuel the planes.
The first day of winter in the Southern Hemisphere was Monday – the sun will not rise at the South Pole till the first day of spring in September.
Only 57 people are wintering over at the U.S. South Pole research station, which is important to scientists because it is one of only two places on the Earth’s surface where the earth’s magnetic field falls.
Weather permitting, only one aircraft will make the roughly 1,500-mile flight to the South Pole.
He said two station workers are ill and officials were still trying to decide whether to evacuate both or just the sickest one.
The average temperature around the base is -60C; but it can fluctuate higher, or even lower than that, which means a rescue mission can be unsafe if the weather turns bad – the lowest temperature the Twin Otter aircraft are rated to fly at is -65C.
The National Science Foundation responsible for the station told McClatchy News that there are 48 people, including 39 men and 9 women, at the remote site now.
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This kind of midwinter rescue from Polar Base has been attempted only twice before; once in 2001 – when the base’s only physician came down with a potentially fatal case of pancreatitis – and once in 2003. Researchers there are studying the atmosphere and dark matter using two radio telescopes, as well as an observatory that monitors subatomic particles produced by black holes and other cosmic incidents.
