Plane on way to daring South Pole medical rescue in winter

The National Science Foundation announced today that it has launched a medical evacuation mission for one of the 48 members now living and working at its facility at the South Pole.

The Twin Otter aircrafts, from Alberta-based airline Kenn Borek Air, were dispatched to the isolated Amundsen-Scott South Pole station because they are created to endure severe cold and are equipped with skis, allowing them to land in snow, the U.S. National Science Foundation said in a statement.

Flying to the South Pole is already hard during the Antarctic summer, but when the continent is in the middle of the pitch dark of winter – as it is right now – weather conditions make flying practically impossible, reports CBS Sports’ Dana Jacobson.

The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in 2006.

The first patient is a seasonal employee with Lockheed Martin who requires hospitalization and must be evacuated, and that’s all officials will say.

The NSF contracts with Kenn Borek Air, Limited of Canada to provide logistical support to the Antarctic program.

The National Science Foundation decided last week to mount the rescue operation because the unidentified staffer needed medical care that can’t be provided there.

“They’re going to put the plane down on the ice pack, they’re going to taxi in to where the rescue needs to take place, load up with the engines running and get out of there as fast as they can”, Durdey said.

WASHINGTON-A daring South Pole medical rescue is under way.

Two Canadian planes that are on their way to Antarctica on a medical mission are waiting on the southern tip of South America for favourable weather to complete their journey. In the 60 years that the Amundsen-Scott station has been operating, only two previous winter rescue missions have occurred in 2001 and 2003.

Rescuers are trying to reach a sick contractor at the American Research Station at the South Pole. Temperatures at the pole typically run around -75 F this time of year – cold enough to freeze fuel and turn the hydraulic fluid used to operate an aircraft’s landing gear to jelly.

Attempting a South Pole rescue expedition during the winter season has been proving hard for pilots.

“The Twin Otter is a very reliable aircraft, its the engines, with very few issues, and Kenn Borek Air does very good maintenance”.