Wash. Post story on air drop
Mark Stencel
Stranded, Sick At South Pole
Airdrop Planned for Worker With Breast Lump
Chris Weddle wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> We have received this information via email and have nothing further on it.
> Does anyone out there know more?
>
> We don't know who the person is and wouldn't infringe on her privacy if we
> did. So please don't share any information you aren't supposed to. News
> clippings and the like would be most appreciated.
>
> Just hoping it all turns out well and she gets home OK.
>
> Chris Weddle
> RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer
> Near Anvers Island, Antarctica
>
> *** South Pole researcher to get aid
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) - An Air Force jet flying into an area of absolute
> darkness and extreme cold will parachute emergency medical supplies
> to an American research station at the South Pole next week,
> officials said Tuesday. The supplies are for the treatment of a
> 47-year-old woman who is part of a small group staying through the
> winter at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station operated by the
> National Science Foundation. The woman is a U.S. citizen employed by
> Antarctic Support Associates, an Englewood, Colo., firm that provides
> logistical support for NSF researchers at the South Pole Station. A
> statement from the NSF said that nobody has ever been rescued from
> the South Pole during the winter and that the last airdrop was four
> years ago. See
> http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560203642-8a6
Chris Weddle
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/08/247l-070899-idx.html
>> http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560203642-8a6
Hi,
Here on the research ships we have no access to the World Wide Web due to
the high cost of satellite time. Only text email messages under 50KB
maximum size per message get here. If you can, please send the full text of
these articles via email directly to me here aboard the RVIB Nathaniel B.
Palmer.
Thank You,
Chris Weddle
R_esearch
V_essel
I_ce
B_reaker
Nathaniel B. Palmer
Off of Anvers Island, Antarctica
<John> <Cormier>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/08/247l-070899-idx.html
(other one follows below)
Stranded, Sick At South Pole
Airdrop Planned for Worker With Breast Lump
By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 8, 1999; Page A03
It is 3,200 miles from civilization, in the middle of a chill, pitch-dark,
virtually uninhabited wilderness the size of the United States and Mexico
combined. The South Pole is as far from help as any place on Earth.
Isolated for nine months with 40 other people enduring the winter at the
National Science Foundation's tiny Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, a
47-year-old woman about three weeks ago discovered a lump in her breast.
Extreme cold and darkness made it impossible to land aircraft at the
station, so today the Air Force planned to send a C-141 Starlifter cargo jet
on an emergency mission to airdrop medical supplies to treat the woman until
a springtime flight can evacuate her in November.
Officials would not identify the woman, or give any details of her
condition: "The individual appreciates the support and concern she's
received from friends and colleagues and the efforts made on her behalf,"
the foundation said in a statement yesterday. "She has chosen privacy at
this point in a very personal process."
The woman is an employee of Englewood, Colo.-based Antarctic Support
Associates, a private company contracted to maintain the base facilities and
provide services to researchers working there.
The Englewood firm would not describe her work or her condition, but
spokeswoman Valerie Carroll said the woman had had an x-ray and a biopsy at
the station's medical facility.
Communications with the station were limited by satellite availability,
Carroll said. But after the woman found the lump, she and the station's lone
doctor had conducted medical consultations in conference telephone calls and
by e-mail with doctors "from all over the country."
Officials would not specify exactly what medical supplies will be
airdropped, but Carroll said they will enable the doctor to treat a variety
of conditions if necessary.
There are 19 support personnel wintering at the station, along with eight
scientists and 14 construction workers involved in "South Pole Rebuild," a
project to revamp the 1970s-era installation, Carroll said.
"It is essentially a skeleton crew that keeps the station running," added
foundation spokesman Peter West. "If you own a rental property, you don't
turn off the heat. They're doing some maintenance, and some technicians are
assisting with experiments."
Those who spend the winter at the Pole are stuck there between February and
October, when ice and snow blow over the runways, and extreme cold cripples
aircraft hydraulics, West said. The temperature at the Pole was minus 82
degrees Fahrenheit at 5 p.m. yesterday, with 12 mph winds, according to the
foundation's Office of Polar Programs.
Responding to a foundation request, the Air Force yesterday readied a relief
flight to leave today from McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Wash., fly to
Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii to refuel, and then fly on to Christchurch,
New Zealand, for a 36-hour rest stop.
Air Force Capt. Bill Barksdale, spokesman for the McChord-based 62nd Airlift
Wing, said that--weather permitting--the C-141 Starlifter planned to leave
Christchurch Monday, refuel in mid-air from an accompanying KC-10 tanker
jet, make its airdrop and return to Christchurch. The final round trip is
6,400 miles long, and most of it will take place in the dead of the southern
night.
"It's challenging weather overall," Barksdale said. He noted that the 62nd
Airlift Wing had been making flights to the Pole for the "last few years,"
but never during winter, and never in the dark. Barksdale said the emergency
flight would carry between 20 and 30 people, including double crew and
navigators.
Still, noted West, although the emergency was "unusual and unfortunate,"
airdrops were "something done on a fairly routine basis" in the past, when t
he wintering researchers demanded fresh vegetables and mail. The Internet,
e-mail and better management of foodstuffs had made the flights unnecessary
in recent years.
The South Pole Station is a geodesic dome with an arch-like entrance that
gives it the appearance of a half-submerged, outsize igloo. Tunnels and a
walkway connect the dome to a large garage, which, along with a fuel storage
facility, are the only other large structures at the station.
During the southern hemisphere's summer months from November to February,
the station accommodates up to 200 people who are working on hundreds of
experiments under the aegis of the foundation, which funds a variety of
scientific research, West said. Support Associates provides everything from
lab assistants to cooks and aircraft mechanics.
In the earliest parts of the summer, large C-130 propeller-driven Hercules
air cargo planes and smaller DeHavilland Otters land at the station's
airstrip for resupply and to ferry personnel in and out. As the summer
deepens, however, the surface of the two-mile-thick ice cap turns slushy,
and the planes use skis.
But when winter sets in, the airstrip shuts down. Anybody who spends the
cold months must go through a thorough medical screening, West said, to
minimize the chances of serious medical problems.
A doctor remains through the winter to treat people at the equivalent of a
"level three trauma center," a fairly sophisticated facility of the type
that serves a town of 20,000 to 50,000 people.
West said officials are confident that the airdrop will bring adequate
treatment for the current patient "without an imminent threat to her life,"
and expressed confidence the Air Force could bring off the relief mission
without trouble.
"Beyond the sort of drama inherent in Antarctica," West said, "the airdrop
is the only way you can get anything there."
© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2560203642-8a6 below:
06:39 PM ET 07/06/99South Pole Researcher To Get Aid
South Pole Researcher To Get Aid
WASHINGTON (AP) _ An Air Force jet flying into an area of
absolute darkness and extreme cold will parachute emergency medical
supplies to an American research station at the South Pole next
week, officials said Tuesday.
The supplies are for the treatment of a 47-year-old woman who is
part of a small group staying through the winter at the
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station operated by the National Science
Foundation.
The woman, who was not identified, is a U.S. citizen employed by
Antarctic Support Associates, an Englewood, Colo., firm that
provides logistical support for NSF researchers at the South Pole Station.
NSF director Karl A. Erb said that the woman recently discovered
a lump in one breast. Medical experts received information about
the patient through a satellite link, said Erb, and decided that
the woman could be treated with airdropped medical supplies.
The South Pole is now in the midst of its winter. Temperatures
of minus-80 degrees are common. The sun never rises during this
season so the pole is in absolute darkness.
Erb said the conditions make the parachute drop of supplies ``a
challenging flight for both the aircrew and the aircraft.''
A statement from the NSF said that nobody has ever been rescued
from the South Pole during the winter and that the last airdrop was
four years ago.
A C-141 Starlifter from McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Wash.,
will attempt the airdrop Monday, officials said.