An Australian team has pulled off a rare and daring midwinter aero-medical evacuation of a United States expeditioner in Antarctica.<\/p>\n
Australian aviation company Skytraders said it mobilised its Airbus A319 after an “urgent request for assistance” late last month.<\/p>\n
After an initial attempt was delayed due to severe weather, Skytraders said it was able to depart Hobart on 31 July at 2:44am.<\/p>\n
It landed at US-operated McMurdo Station 5.5 hours later in complete darkness and freezing temperatures.<\/p>\n
“Operating in extremely challenging conditions and temperatures as low as -43 degrees Celsius, the crew safely transferred the patient before departing Antarctica ahead of deteriorating conditions,” Skytraders said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The plane, known as Snowbird 1, then flew later that day to Christchurch, where the patient was treated.<\/p>\n
Details about their condition and the circumstances that led to their medical evacuation have not been disclosed.<\/p>\n
The pilot, Captain Al Wallach, said the mission proved successful because of years of preparation, specialist training and coordination between flight crews, meteorologists, operational planners, runway teams and medical personnel.<\/p>\n
“Every Antarctic mission demands absolute precision, but winter operations raise the complexity significantly,” Captain Wallach said.<\/p>\n
“The conditions we encountered were right on the edge of even the most specialised aircraft capability.”<\/p>\n
He said his team’s focus throughout the mission was on the safety of the patient and crew.<\/p>\n
“Our thoughts remain with the patient, and we wish them a full recovery,” he said.<\/p>\n
The Australian Antarctic Program uses the same Skytraders plane for its intercontinental flights between Hobart and Wilkins Aerodrome in Antarctica.<\/p>\n
Wilkins Aerodrome typically stops being used in March each year due to deteriorating conditions.<\/p>\n
Skytraders described its midwinter mission as “extraordinary” and said “Australia has reinforced [itself as] a world leader in specialist Antarctic aviation”.<\/p>\n
The ABC has contacted the US Antarctic Program for more details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Australian team has pulled off a rare and daring midwinter aero-medical evacuation of a United States expeditioner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-561291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}