Rescue workers dispatched from Australia braved the end of the Antarctic winter to get a polar researcher extracted from their research station. It is never good to get ill when you’re far from civilization and medical care. There’s a happy ending because the ice breaker crashed far enough through to make the pick up.
A complex rescue operation
Australia’s Antarctic research program is calling the successful rescue of an “unwell expeditioner” from its south pole station a “complex operation.” Down under the equator they’re barely creeping into spring. That means daytime temperatures are still hovering around 12 degrees Fahrenheit.
As reported September 5, the team recently “deployed its RSV Nuyina icebreaker from Hobart on the island state of Tasmania, where the program is based.” They were really nervous about sending it out with winter still clinging to the forecasts.
“It’s the earliest we’ve ever gone to an Antarctic station,” the program’s acting general manager of operations, Robb Clifton, relates. Even starting from that far south, the ship had to traverse “more than 1,860 miles.” That, Washington Post notes, is “about the length of the drive from D.C. to Albuquerque.”
Australia launched an urgent operation to rescue a researcher w/a "developing medical condition" fm the remote Casey outpost in Antarctica.
Icebreaker RSV Nuyina left fm Tasmania last week to travel thousands of miles to reach the station after harsh weather ruled out air rescue pic.twitter.com/c3sMwGQ54m— Rita Rosenfeld (@rheytah) September 2, 2023
The rescue team wasn’t simply sailing along on a pleasure cruise. They were “breaking through ice until it got within 78 nautical miles of Australia’s Casey research station on Sunday.” That’s as close as they can get until more ice melts.
“From there, two helicopters took off from the RSV Nuyina, making the nearly hour-long flight to the outpost.” The rescue crew touched down without event and “collected the expeditioner.”
Once they got their patient safely on the ship, “the person received medical care by ‘polar medicine doctors‘ and hospital staff from Hobart.”
Special assessment and care
While the program wasn’t able to share much about their unwell research crewmember, “citing privacy concerns.” What they could relate is that the person has a “developing medical condition and needs specialist assessment and care in Australia.”
It’s a big deal Clifton explained the rescue evacuation took place “just a day or two after the official end of winter.” That means it was “still very much winter in Antarctica.” Nobody moves around then but the penguins.
Just in case, the Australian team lined up help from other nations with ships in the region who could help if needed. The United States was one of them. Once they got their own resources assembled, they quickly realized they had more than enough personnel and equipment to handle the rescue job themselves.
A researcher in Australia's Casey outpost in Antarctica fall sick. Due to unstable ice condition, aircraft cant land there. The icebreaker ship RSV Nuyina with helicopter is sent for this month long & challenging ~7000km full journey rescue. Lot in our earth still unexplored 1/2 pic.twitter.com/TVxhhxJX8v
— Tamil Nadu Geography (@TNGeography) September 3, 2023
Normally, they use “long-range aircraft to shuttle people and equipment between Hobart and a small airfield near the Casey research station.” They don’t do that all year round though.
During the summer months, they fly crews numbering around 100 in and out while hauling supplies. Once autumn rolls around, the group shrinks to 15 to 20 people buried in ice and stuck until it melts. The research station at Casey “is one of three year-round stations operated by Australia.”
Luckily, it also happens to be the one easiest to get to, “perched on the edge of the massive Antarctic ice cap,” about “2,400 miles south of the city of Perth in Western Australia.” The rescue team is still on the way back to Hobart, expected to arrive “next week, depending on weather.“
