Posted on 08/09/2025 1:40:24 AM PDT by naturalman1975
Crew on a Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130J Hercules have carried out a challenging mid-winter medical evacuation from McMurdo Station in Antarctica.
The medical evacuation was requested by the United States' National Science Foundation because staff, based at the United States' McMurdo Station, were unable to receive the medical care they needed in Antarctica.
One person required urgent medical care and two others needing medical attention were also taken on the flight.
Air Component Commander Air Commodore Andy Scott said the extreme cold, changeable weather conditions plus landing on the ice in the dark make mid-winter flights to Antarctica one of the most challenging RNZAF air crews perform.
"The crew can only attempt the flight after detailed analysis of the weather and airfield state. The United States Antarctic Program Winter Team must physically create the runway before we can depart by ensuring the ice is groomed and suitable for landing.
"Although they determine it is safe, it's still an extremely challenging environment to fly in on Night Vision Goggles due to the extreme weather conditions, which are highly changeable at this time of year and makes accurate forecasting a challenge.
"This, coupled with there being no airfields available to divert to once the aircraft is past a certain point south adds to the risk, so these missions are not taken lightly.
"With the support of Antarctica New Zealand and United States' National Science Foundation staff in Antarctica, we have been able to complete the flight and the patients are now getting the medical treatment they need in Christchurch."
The aircraft flew to Antarctica with New Zealand Defence Force medical personnel including a medical officer (doctor) on board to care for the patients on the flight back to Christchurch.
The aircraft had been pre-positioned from Auckland to Christchurch on Sunday afternoon, with the crew waiting for a window in the weather to complete the flight.
On Tuesday afternoon, the crew made the decision to fly, working through the night to complete the mission.
Once on the ice, the aircraft's engines are kept running to keep them warm while it is refuelled, known as "hot refuelling", before the aircraft returns to Christchurch.
Including the short time on the ice, the medical evacuation took about 19.5 hours to complete. The aircraft landed back in Christchurch this morning.
Thanks
I read several of your posts and your bio. Glad to have you on FR.im sure many freepers have been to Australia. I was there for a week of RandR in 1971.Wonderful welcome from youth groups, a family that rented me a bike and a retired USAF boss of mine, born and retired near Sydney. I biked up the coast to his home.
Larry
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This medical issue better be ‘natural’ and not self inflicted, like trans, abort, mutilation, etc
This daring rescue has been done before in 1999 for Dr. Jerri Nielsen who found she had cancer while stationed there. Her story is interesting & one of personal courage, treating her own cancer with the help of others at the station. She died at 57 in 2009. Her cancer had been in remission but returned in 2005.
NZ has an Air Force? With planes, uniforms and pilots and runways etc? Who knew?
Unbelievable. What a brave mission. Had they had to ditch, they would not have survived.
No combat planes of any description anymore unfortunately, but they still have some airlift capacity and handle quite a lot of maritime patrolling - they have a lot of water to cover, and, as this mission shows, the fact they are one of the closest places to Antartica means they are called on to support people down there on occasion.
Is this the same place in the news a few months ago, where isolated researchers at a cold climate station were begging for a violent and mentally unbalanced fellow resident to be forcibly removed from their station because he had assaulted several members there already and was a continued risk for more, or worse?
Wikipedia say McMurdo Station is a little over 2400 miles from Christchurch. For that mission, I suspect there would be 2 crews onboard along with a roll on medical module..
An impressive performance. Glad it succeeded.
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