MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) 鈥� An Australian air crew flew an American from an base to a New Zealand hospital in a rare midwinter rescue.
The A319 Long Range aircraft, with the call sign Snowbird 1, flew from the Australian city of Hobart to the U.S. McMurdo Station in Antarctica on July 31 in response to an 鈥渦rgent request for assistance,鈥� the jet鈥檚 Melbourne-based owner Skytraders said in a statement Thursday.
The jet landed after a five hour and 30 minute flight at the Phoenix Airfield near McMurdo in darkness and with temperatures as low as minus 43 C (minus 45.4 F), the statement said.
The American was flown on the same day to a hospital in Christchurch, New Zealand, as weather conditions at the Antarctic air strip worsened, said Skytraders, which is contracted by the Australian Antarctic Program.
The U.S. told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the patient was admitted to the Christchurch Hospital in a 鈥渟erious condition.鈥�
New Zealand鈥檚 Health Ministry on Friday would not comment on the American鈥檚 condition or say whether the American remained in hospital.
The mission鈥檚 copilot, Louise Robertson, said conditions were close to the limit of the aircraft鈥檚 capabilities.
鈥淲e had some what鈥檚 called nautical twilight, which is a very minimal amount of light that is pretty much pitch blackness and also the extreme cold temperatures. We are right on the verge of the limitation of the aircraft,鈥� Robertson told ABC.
鈥淚t was very close to being too cold,鈥� she said.鈥� It got down to minus 43 (Celsius), which is the coldest I鈥檝e ever felt. It was about 8 knots of wind, so quite a bit of wind-chill as well.鈥�
Robertson said plans to fly to the base on the Ross Ice Shelf a day earlier were aborted due to a snow storm.
鈥淭here 鈥� was really just such a narrow window of opportunity,鈥� Robertson said.
鈥淭o get there in complete darkness in these extreme cold temperatures is very, very rare. I believe it hasn鈥檛 been done before,鈥� she added.
The sun last set at the geographic South Pole on March 23 and will not rise until Sept. 21.
The New Zealand Air Force working on the U.S. Antarctic Program from the Phoenix Airfield in a C-130 Hercules in a medical emergency in April, which is the Southern Hemisphere autumn.
In August last year, the final month of the Southern Hemisphere winter, New Zealand used the same type of four-engine turboprop transport aircraft to evacuate three people on a flight from McMurdo for medical treatment.
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Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand.
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