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.

FMI: http://astro.uchicago.edu/cara/vtour/pole