Sat, Dec 22, 2007
NSF-Chartered Plane Crashed On Takeoff Near Mt. Patterson
All 10 people onboard a Basler DC-3 chartered by the National
Science Foundation are safe, after the aircraft crashed on takeoff
earlier this week in Antarctica. The turboprop-converted workhorse
was providing support to a group of researchers at a remote
location on the southernmost continent.
According to NSF, the aircraft -- owned by Kenn Borek Air Ltd.,
a Canadian aviation firm -- experienced difficulties in taking off
from a field site near Mt. Patterson in West Antarctica on the
morning of December 20, local time (US stations in Antarctica keep
New Zealand time), roughly 550 miles from McMurdo Station, NSF's
logistical hub in Antarctica.
The six passengers aboard the plane were part of the NSF-funded
portion of the international Polar Earth Observatory Network
(POLENET) project, which is deploying GPS units and seismic sensors
across Antarctica to make observations that are vital to
understanding how the massive ice sheets are changing. In turn,
these measurements are critical to understanding how ice sheets
affect sea level worldwide, and thereby global climate in
general.
The POLENET team and four aircraft crewmembers were flown back
to McMurdo Station.
As a matter of routine, the incident is under investigation by
the Department of the Interior's Aircraft Management Division
(AMD). NSF has a memorandum of agreement with the Interior
Department to conduct such investigations. As the managing federal
agency for the US Antarctic Program, NSF coordinates and supports
all US scientific research on the southernmost continent and in
surrounding waters.
AMD has contacted the National Transportation Safety Board
(NTSB) about the incident. The NTSB will coordinate as necessary
with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
Because the cause of the accident is under investigation, NSF
says it will have no further comment, pending the conclusion of
that investigation.
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