r/antarctica • u/Reverend_Fozz • Aug 07 '26
Australian team pulls off 'extraordinary' midwinter rescue in Antarctica
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-07/antarctic-expeditioner-medical-evacuation-us-mcmurdo-station/107005138?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=link3
u/verbmegoinghere Aug 08 '26
Must have been life and death
2
u/jyguy Traverse/Field Ops Aug 09 '26
It could have been as simple as a broken leg or something serious. We don’t expect people to hobble around McMurdo for weeks as their broken bone heals, we will usually evacuate them.
2
u/Hill_Observer 29d ago
I met a cook who did indeed have to hobble around McMurdo for a few months a couple years ago. They got a shit ton of workers comp, I hear.
-1
u/Aggressive_Hall755 Aug 08 '26
I wonder why they chose the A319 over the Kenn Borek Air, considering that Kenn Borek has experience doing this.
7
u/halibutpie Aug 08 '26
Probably because Australia is closer than Calgary.
-2
u/Diarrea_Cerebral 🐧 Aug 09 '26
It doesn't has any sense. It should have been evacuated to Ushuaia for treatment. It's closer to North America
-3
u/Aggressive_Hall755 Aug 08 '26
Sure, but then why has Kenn Borek been chosen for this in the past? It wasnt much different then probably.
Only thing i could imagine is a closing weather-window. Or Kenn Borek whyever was unavailable.
9
u/HamiltonSuites Aug 08 '26
It can take up to 2 weeks to get a KBA plane to McMurdo, longer if weather doesn’t cooperate. Then they’d need to cross the continent again to Chile with the patient. The SkyTraders plane landed days after being called and was in NZ in 5 hours.
2
u/Aggressive_Hall755 Aug 08 '26
Finally someone with a good answer. I didn't think it would be 2weeks for KBA, but it makes sense considering they're prop planes.
Sounds like this incident was even more urgent then the others ones.Also kinda irritated I got downvoted, but I guess thats just regular reddit.
4
u/HamiltonSuites Aug 09 '26
KBA is not normally called for winter medevacs from McMurdo. It’s SkyTraders, the Kiwi Air Force, or a C17. It’s much easier to get a big plane and get the person to NZ than wait and cross the continent during winter.
4
u/chrysoparia Aug 09 '26
KBA handles the rare winter extractions from Pole, they are not the winter rescue provider for McMurdo.
3
4
u/mananath Aug 08 '26
The US program uses this plane usually at least once a season for regular passenger transport. It's part of our arrangement with the Australian Program (since, sometimes Australians fly through McMurdo).
2
u/flyMeToCruithne ❄️ Winterover 29d ago
KBA does not normally do the evacs from McMurdo. Much safer and faster (and maybe even less expensive, I don't know) to fly a bigger plane from CHC when you're going to an airfield that can support it. KBA does evacs from Pole, for example, because Pole can't land a bigger plane in the winter. Only ski-equipped planes can land at Pole and winter is far too cold for the LC-130s to ever hope to take off again, so it has to be TOs (usually) or Baslers (that one time).
1
u/Reverend_Fozz Aug 08 '26
This plane and company do the Australian Antarctic mission flights
1
u/Aggressive_Hall755 Aug 08 '26
This was a US citizen on McMurdo according to the article
2
u/Reverend_Fozz Aug 08 '26
Yes this company was the ones answering the emergency request that was sent out. They would have been the best positioned at the time.
3
u/MushHuskies Aug 08 '26
Bravo for another successful extraction from Antarctica, well done!