Ken Borek Air - Another Antartic rescue underway

[Specs]

Wishing them all the best

extract

Between February and October, only one type of craft can fly to, land at and take off again from the South Pole: the tiny Twin Otter. Two of these hardy, winter-proof bush planes, operated by Canadian polar service firm Kenn Borek, are now headed south, Falkner said, each of them carrying a pilot, a co-pilot, an engineer and a medic. Once they reach the British research station Rothera on Adelaide Island, one plane and its crew will remain behind to provide search and rescue capability should the main plane go down.

The second Twin Otter will continue on toward the pole, flying into the deeper cold (current temperature at Amundsen-Scott is minus-76 degrees Fahrenheit) and impenetrable night. If all goes well, it could arrive as early as June 19, though that depends on whether the pilots can find a window in the brutal Antarctic winter weather to fly.

"It's a 10-hour flight, and you only have 12 or 13 hours of fuel on board," Alberta bush pilot Sean Loutitt said. "You're monitoring the weather the whole time, but eventually you get to a point of no return. Then you're committed to the pole, no matter what."

Full article here

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/06/16/a-rare-risky-mission-is-underway-to-rescue-sick-scientists-from-the-south-pole/

[conehead]

Hoping all goes well... Not an easy mission.

[Guest]

Calgary crews arrive in Antarctica

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• National
• World

by Ian Campbell

Posted Jun 20, 2016 5:18 pm MDT

(National Science Foundation)

 

Two Calgary flight crews have touched down in Antarctica and have begun to outfit their planes, as they await word on when they can carry on to evacuate a researcher.

Word of their arrival came earlier Monday; they’re now waiting for a window to open up offering more favourable weather.

The frozen continent poses a number of dangers this time of year, because it’s extremely cold and the 10 hour flight will be very dark.

One plane will carry onto the pole, while the second stays at Rothera Research Station for search and rescue capabilities.

National Science Foundation spokesperson Peter West said this is a rare flight and one that requires many precautions.

“In fact, there have only been two flights like this previously,” he explained. “One was in 2001 and one was in 2003. They were slightly earlier in the winter down there, so it is unusual.”

Kenn Borek crews spent the day resting and fitting their planes with skis.

[Moon The Loon]

24 hour darkness for the next 2 months. Good luck, guys, and GodSpeed...

[Kasey]

Leg one done! Now to get home safely.......... Bon Voyage and good luck.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/kenn-borek-air-weather-delays-june-20-1.3645013

[Guest]

[Guest]

Success!!!!!

June 22, 2016 7:20 am

Canadian plane leaves South Pole after daring medical rescue mission

By Seth Borenstein The Associated Press

 

WASHINGTON – A small plane left the South Pole on Wednesday with a sick worker in a daring rescue mission from a remote U.S. science outpost, federal officials said.

In an international effort, a Canadian-owned Twin Otter turboprop plane started the 1,500-mile flight to Rothera, a British station on the Antarctic peninsula, said Peter West, spokesman for the National Science Foundation, which runs the polar station for the United States. It’s a nine to 10-hour flight, which the crew made from Rothera on Tuesday to get to the South Pole. 

Once the sick patient and the crew – a pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer and medical worker – rest, they will then fly off Antarctica for medical attention that could not be provided on the remote continent.

 

West said at least one worker and possibly two – support crew employed by logistics contractor Lockheed Martin – had to be evacuated. The agency won’t identify the sick workers or their conditions, citing medical privacy.

Normally planes don’t use the polar outpost from February to October because of the dangers of flying in the pitch dark and cold. Wednesday it was minus 75 degrees at the South Pole (minus 60 Celsius), according to the station’s webcam and weather gauges. The first day of winter in the Southern Hemisphere was Monday – the sun will not rise at the South Pole till the first day of spring in September.

WATCH: Canadian planes are now en route to rescue sick workers at an Antarctic research station. It’s located in a place so remote, dark and cold that no one flies in our out this time of year and it’s so dangerous that rescue missions have only been attempted twice. Reid Fiest looks at what the pilots are up against. 

The extreme cold affects a lot of things on planes, including fuel, which needs to be warmed before takeoff, batteries and hydraulics, West said. The Twin Otter can fly in temperatures as low as minus 103 degrees (minus 75 degrees Celsius), he said.

“The air and Antarctica are unforgiving environments and punishes any slackness very hard,” said Tim Stockings, operations director at the British Antarctic Survey in London. “If you are complacent it will bite you.”

“Things can change very quickly down there” with ice from clouds, high winds and snow, he said.

READ MORE: 2 Canadian planes waiting to complete dangerous mission in ‘total darkness’ of Antarctic winter

The National Science Foundation decided last week to mount the rescue operation because one staffer needed medical care that can’t be provided there. The station has a doctor, a physician’s assistant and is connected to doctors in the U.S. for consults, West said. There are 48 people – 39 men and nine women – at the station.

WATCH: The U.S. National Science Foundation says two Twin Otter planes from Calgary-based Kenn Borek Air will wait at a British station in the Antarctic until weather permits them to fly another 2,400 kilometres to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station to evacuate a seasonal employee. 

There have been three emergency evacuations from the Amundsen-Scott station since 1999. The 1999 flight, which was done in Antarctic spring with slightly better conditions, rescued the station’s doctor, Jerri Nielsen, who had breast cancer and had been treating herself. Rescues were done in 2001 and 2003, both for gallbladder problems.

Scientists have had a station at the South Pole since 1956. It does astronomy, physics and environmental science with telescopes, seismographs and instruments that monitor the atmosphere. The foundation runs two other science stations in Antarctica.

[blues deville]

“The air and Antarctica are unforgiving environments and punishes any slackness very hard,” said Tim Stockings, operations director at the British Antarctic Survey in London. “If you are complacent it will bite you.”

More like "kill you". These pilots and crew are brave individuals. 

[Kasey]

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canadian-plane-lands-at-british-research-station-with-two-sick-workers-1.2956381

[Guest]

SOUTH POLE RESCUE FLIGHT BY CANADIANS LANDS SAFELY

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U.S. officials say a small Canadian plane with two sick workers landed in Punta Arenas, Chile, on Wednesday, and the workers were taken to a medical facility. The two were rescued from a U.S. science outpost at the South Pole, pictured, the National Science Foundation says. Normally, planes don’t fly to the polar outpost from February to October because of the dark and cold. It was -60 C at the South Pole on Wednesday.

ROBERT SCHWARZ/NSF VIA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

[conehead]

Fantastic work. Thumbs up to all the people involved in making it happen!

[Guest]

Well Deserved:

Kenn Borek Air Crew Wins 2017 Laureate for Heroism

Mar 3, 2017Jen DiMascio | Aviation Week & Space TechnologyIN

Evacuating a pair of sick workers from the South Pole is business as usual for the Kenn Borek Air crew, an airline that specializes in transport to remote polar destinations. The carrier typically stops making runs to Antarctica in mid-March, when the weather turns colder and the winds pick up. 

But the call for this mission came in June, the time of year when the land of ice and snow sees little daylight, the time of year when no aircraft had ever made the journey across the Drake Passage, known for vicious winds and storms, and then into the heart of the South Pole. A pair of Lockheed Martin workers had fallen sick and needed to leave Antarctica.

Kenn Borek Air has one of the largest fleets of Twin Otter aircraft in the world and is known for Arctic—and Antarctic—operations. Credit: Kenn Borek Air

 

Kenn Borek Air Capt. Wally Dobchuk is all business in describing the mission. The crew started on a pair of Twin Otter aircraft in Calgary, Alberta. They flew to Denver and then McAllen, Texas. From there, they took a commercial flight to Punta Arenas, Chile, to rest while a backup crew flew the Twin Otters to meet them at the small city along the Strait of Magellan. 

There, they rested a bit more and consulted with officials from the National Science Foundation, watching satellite weather imagery. The crew waited 36 hr. for a blizzard to pass before embarking on an 8-9 hr. flight across the Drake Passage to Rothera Research Station on Antarctica’s Adelaide Island. It would be a difficult flight. The plane was outfitted with a specialty load and carrying about 5,000 lb. more than the normal manufacturing weight.

“What sort of slows us down or stops us is any icing on that routing,” Dobchuk explains. Luckily, the weather cooperated. The crew arrived in twilight, spent 12 hr. in temperatures of about −60C (−76F), reconfigured the aircraft on spring skis and then started another 9.7-hr. journey to Amundsen Scott South Pole Station. 

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Again, the crew faced no problem with the weather. But watching the fuel gauge became an obsession for Dobchuk, because there is nowhere to stop along the route. Fluctuations in the speed of the wind can make a big difference in the amount of fuel left for the ride, he explains. But they wound up with more than enough to spare. Dobchuck flew with first officer Sebastian Trudel and maintenance engineer Michael McCrae. 

For Dobchuk the best part of the journey was arriving safely at Rothera Station and handing off the two rescued workers to the next crew, James Haffney, Lindsay Owen and Gerald Cirtwill, with a respectful handshake acknowledging a job well done.

Says Dobchuk: “Our job is just to get there and get there safe.” 

[Kip Powick]

1 hour ago, Malcolm said:

From there, they took a commercial flight to Punta Arenas, Chile,

Years ago I was tasked with a South America trainer  to check out potential Captains of the C-130. I was asked to do a short hop down to PUNTAS ARENAS and check out the airport to see if it was suitable for Military aircraft to use as a "jump-off" spot during the Falklands crisis.

All our Passports had been checked when we stopped in Santiago, Chile  so it should have been just a short fight down there, still in Chile, and then about 6 hours on the ground  followed by a night flight up to Buenos Aires. For some reason we had to show Passports again and a complete and official Crew List, which we always carried.

The Officials found one of the pilots Passports did not agree with the crew list

The Passport had his first name as  "Walter"

The Crew LIst had him as "Walt"

Even though it was pointed out to the officials that his middle initial on the Crew List matched the first letter of his middle name in his Passport and the last name was identical, and of course there was the Passport Photo.......still the officials would not let him set foot on the ground. 

He spent a little over 6 hours dozing and reading in the aircraft during our time in Puntas Arenas ........with an armed guard outside, in a chair, under the wing.

 

But that story is not as bad as landing in Damascus Syria and my FO had left his Passport at the previous stop in another country.

[Guest]

Another well deserved award for the crew.

'A mighty bit of flying': Kenn Borek air crews who pulled off daring Antarctic rescue honoured by Smithsonian

Calgary crews honoured for plucking sick workers from South Pole amid blizzards and –60 C temperatures

By David Bell, CBC NewsPosted: Mar 29, 2017 7:31 PM MT Last Updated: Mar 30, 2017 12:57 AM MT

Two crews from the Calgary-based Kenn Borek Air received a prestigious award Wednesday night in Washington, D.C., after a dangerous rescue from the South Pole in 2016. (National Science Foundation)

The Canadian flight crews who rescued two sick workers from the South Pole in an "audacious" operation amid blizzards and –60 C temperatures have been honoured with a Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Trophy for outstanding achievement.

In June 2016, the Calgary-based Kenn Borek Air team flew two Twin Otter aircraft from Calgary to Chile, a journey of 12,500 km in 45 hours. After a delay due to bad weather, they then made the perilous 1,600-km journey to Rothera, Antarctica.

One plane then travelled another 2,400 kilometres to the U.S. National Science Foundation's Amundsen-Scott Research station at the South Pole to pick up two people who needed to be taken to hospital.

• See their rescue route at the bottom of this story
• Kenn Borek Air crew says South Pole rescue mission 'just got away in time' before blizzard hit

Pilot Wally Dobchuk, who was one of those honoured on Wednesday night, said at the time that after a blizzard held the team up in Chile for two days, the weather began to co-operate.

 

"It all sort of came into place for us," Dobchuk said. "Once we landed, I think everything went as planned."

Watch

 

Watch footage from the medevac rescue in Antarctica0:29

The team had a limited window to get to the research station due to deteriorating weather conditions. Flights in and out of the station are usually not planned between February and October because of the extreme cold and darkness in the Antarctic at that time.  Link to the complete story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/kenn-borek-smithsonian-award-1.4046501?cmp=rss

[blues deville]

Congrats on another successful flight.

Pretty harsh conditions for man and machine. Those photos just "look" cold. Didn't realize they are on straight skis. I guess that's the only thing that works. 

[J.O.]

What an undertaking! It's difficult to comprehend the logistical complexity of those rescue flights. They do all of Canada proud.