Two workers, employees of Lockheed Martin, fell sick at the Amundsen-Scott station run by the US National Science Foundation.
Advertisement
Steve Barnet, who has worked with a University of Wisconsin astronomy team at the polar station in the past but is now in the USA, praised the efforts of the rescue crew. A spokeswoman for the British station said the two are expected to arrive in Chile for medical treatment Wednesday evening.
The sick workers, employees of the U.S. company Lockheed Martin who worked on base logistics and were not identified, were then to be transferred to a hospital in South America, West said, without giving further details.
West mentioned that the first feature is when the crew was at the South Pole base it required to find out if the second staff member was sufficiently ill for the risk being put on the Twin Otter airplane and increasing the load’s weight. There are 48 people – 39 men and nine women – at the station.
The Twin Otter plane, operated by the Canadian company Kenn Borek Air, is specially created to operate in extremely cold temperatures.
The patients were then flown on a second plane to a medical facility in Punta Arenas, Chile’s southernmost city.
Planes to the remote outpost are typically on lockdown this time of year as Antarctica is plunged into a 24-hour darkness with temperatures at the polar base hovering at a bitter -70 °F.
Scientists are impressed with the courage of the Canadian pilots who made this unbelievable flight in extremely harsh conditions, it’s incredible and inspiring.
Extreme cold affects the aircraft – including fuel, which needs to be warmed before take-off, batteries and hydraulics.
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). “If you are complacent it will bite you”.
The rescue team left the U.S. Amundsen-Scott station at the South Pole on Wednesday morning for the 1,500-mile trip to the British post Rothera. The station has a doctor, a physician’s assistant and is connected to doctors in the USA for consultations – but sometimes workers need medical care that can not be provided at the South Pole.
In 1999, the U.S. station’s doctor Jerri Nielsen, who was self-treating her own breast cancer, required medical evacuation but weather conditions were more favorable, as the mission took place in the spring.
Two Americans who became sick at the South Pole are now safely out of Antarctica. Rescues were done in 2001 and 2003, both for gallbladder problems. It is involved in astronomy, physics and environmental research, with telescopes, seismographs and instruments to monitor the atmosphere. Despite the treacherous journeys, researchers have been working at the station since the 1950s, and it is only one of three year-round NSF-led operations in Antarctica.
Stay on topic – This helps keep the thread focused on the discussion at hand.
Advertisement
Share with Us – We’d love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article, and smart, constructive criticism.
