Two sick workers evacuated from a remote United States research station near the South Pole on Wednesday have reached Chile after a risky rescue mission carried out in the dead of Antarctica’s winter, USA officials said.
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In the almost 60-year history of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, only two other people – in 2001 and 2003 – have been airlifted during the perilous Antarctic winter.
The statement said that from Punta Arenas, the two patients will be transported to a medical facility for treatment.
The patients are two USA contractors with Lockheed Martin.
Making a trans-continental journey from their base in Canada, the crew flew into Rothera, a British station on the Antarctic peninsula on Tuesday.
The NSF, the United States research agency that operates the Amundsen-Scott Station, organized the rescue mission last week given the condition of the first patient, which was not disclosed for privacy reasons.
It later became apparent that the second worker also needed to be evacuated. It was -60 C on Wednesday at the South Pole, according to the station’s webcam and weather gauges. Before these two left, there were 48 people – 39 men and nine women – at the station for the winter.
A Twin Otter aircraft, a highly specialised plane was required to complete the mission.
We now know why two workers at a South Pole research station had to be airlifted to hospital.
“The courage of the pilots to make the flight in extremely harsh conditions is incredible and inspiring”, he was quoted by AP as saying.
Near the world’s southernmost point, workers spend this period withstanding almost complete darkness and dramatically low temperatures, on Tuesday, the thermometer dropped to -60 degrees Celsius (-76 degrees Fahrenheit).
“The air and Antarctica are unforgiving environments and punishes any slackness very hard”, said Tim Stockings, operations director for the British Antarctic Survey.
“Things can change very quickly down there with ice from clouds, high winds and snow”, he added.
The 1999 flight, which was done in Antarctic spring with slightly better conditions, rescued the station’s doctor, Jerri Nielsen, who had breast cancer and had been treating herself. Rescues also were done in 2001 and 2003, both for gallbladder problems.
The evacuation flight made headlines due to the danger that they have to face as it is extremely cold in the South Pole at this time of year. “Antarctica itself is the size of the US and Mexico combined, so there are many factors that they’re dealing with”, West said earlier Wednesday while the first Twin Otter was still making the round trip to the South Pole.
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