Thursday, April 26, 2001

A Midwinter Rescue

On Tuesday night, the wind began to die down. Seizing this window of opportunity, one of the Twin Otters took off from Rothera on its way to the South Pole at 2:00 AM Wednesday morning.. By the time the plane was half way here, the wind was calm and the sky was nearly clear.

Most of the people on station were roused early that morning-- some at 2 AM-- to begin preparations for a landing. Weeks of planning and hard work had already been spent getting ready for this flight, but there were still many things to be done. The skiway had to be groomed again to smooth over sastrugi that had formed during the windstorm. "Smudge pots," barrels full of burning debris, had to placed alongside the skiway to guide in the pilot; the fuel lines and tanks that were set up last week had to prepared for fueling the plane; the medical, fire and search and rescue teams that were put together had to be ready to go in case of an emergency.

I continued to take frequent weather observations and stayed in the communications building to keep track of the plane’s progress. It was due to arrive around noon.

Jed started early on lunch so people could eat before the landing. Meghan had taken over in the weather office, so after lunch I made my way out to the landing site with many other Poleys to offer my help and watch the plane land.

It was quite strange to walk out to the Tacan, the building by the skiway where passengers wait to depart and center of all the airfield operations. As we walked through the dark toward the bright light of the building it felt like we were going off to some eerie winter ritual. No one ever came out this way in the winter.

A throng of onlookers gathered around the building, occasionally going inside to warm up. It was -92°F (-69°C), but dead calm.

The skiway crew got the last of the fifteen "smudge pots" burning just before the plane made its final approach. The group stood around and mingled until someone said,

"There’s the plane."

We turned toward the left end of the runway and fell silent as we could hear engines approaching in the distance. Then lights. The plane cut through the frozen fog and appeared. No one spoke. We just watched as it taxied around and came toward the Tacan. Many people took pictures. For the first time ever, a plane had landed at the South Pole in the middle of the Antarctic winter night.

For a while, it just stood before the silent croud idleing. Then the engines cut out. We waited. Finally, the side door opened and someone inside put down a ladder. Jerry, our station manager went up to the entrance.

"Welcome to the South Pole," his voice intoned, at last breaking the silence.

We helped unload the cargo. There was limited room on the small nine-seat plane, but we were glad to see there was lots of salt. We have been nearly out of salt for over a month and the little we have has been reserved for baking.

After the ten-hour flight, the crew planned to stay at the South Pole until 10:00 PM so the crew could take some rest. They covered up the engines and placed heaters near all of the warmth-critical equipment on the plane.

Since these ten hours would be the only time both winter doctors would be here, we decided to take the time-honored winter-over picture with everyone in front of the plane.

We all gathered out at Tacan at 4 PM for the picture. It was still around -95°F (-70°C). After having to reposition the crew several times due to exhaust from heaters, the photographers finally found an angle that would work. Another problem in the extreme cold is the small white clouds that result from exhaling. Trying to get 51 people to all hold their breath at the same time can be a challenge to say the least. After sitting through several pictures taken with two different conventional cameras and several more with a digital, we were starting to get cold. After the last shot, nearly everyone rushed to cram into the warm Tacan building.

When 10PM arrived, the weather in Rothera was bad, so the plane’s crew decided to wait a bit before attempting the treacherous return journey. Their EDT was pushed back to 2 AM. The fire and rescue teams as well as the skiway crew would have to stay up. That of course consisted of most of the station.

At 2 AM the plane’s engines were started. Soon they discovered that some of the mechanical gear had frozen. It would have to be thawed. After a lengthy delay, the Twin Otter finally got off the ground around 5 AM. Most people could finally rest. We were glad to hear today that the plane landed safely in Rothera.

The concept of wintering at the South Pole has forever been changed. It is now a little less isolated of an experience, but somehow I still feel very cut off from the world. The plane came and it left. The door to this cabin that is the South Pole winter has opened just long enough for Doctor Ron to escape and Doctor Betty to come in, and now that door has slammed shut again. The isolation and the winter continue...